N. Cotabato to start cloud seeding ahead of El Nino
AGRICULTURE • 22:08 PM Wed Sep 2, 2015
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By:
Ferdinandh Cabrera
KIDAPAWAN CITY - The North Cotabato provincial government has recommended the
conduct of cloud seeding operations this month ahead of the feared El Nino
phenomenon.
It aims to cushion the impact of the dry spell and
maintain productivity of farmers, especially corn and palay producers. Last year, North Cotabato was No. 1 palay and
corn producer of Region 12.
North Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Mendoza, speaking during
Tuesday’s culminating program of the 101st foundation anniversary
highlighted by Kalivungan Festival, said she said she will meet agriculture officials and disaster
team of the province to discuss and prepare for the coming drought which
experts say could be worse than the 1997 El Nino phenomenon.
The Kalivungan Festival was a thanksgiving festivity
for the bountiful harvests the farmers had received in the past months.
North Cotabato has been known as fruit basket of the
Philippines and main source of high value crops like banana, rubber, oil palm
over and above the province’s major crops – corn and palay.
We are bracing for El Nino, in fact after this we
will be meeting with our agriculture team, our disaster team, we will start the
cloud seeding by September, if you can see around waters in creeks and rivers
are getting very limited,” Mendoza said.
The provincial government has already started food
security projects early this year in Makilala, Arakan and Aleosan towns.
With a budget of P62 million, the projectwere designed to
empower the agriculture sector by constructing more farm to market roads,
multi-purpose solar drying facilities and feed mills.
In 2014, North Cotabato was adjudged top producer of
rice in Central Mindanao with the annual production of 518,000 metric tons and
second in corn with the production of 592,171 MT.