GENERAL SANTOS CITY (PNA) – The Department of Agriculture (DA) will launch cloud seeding operations on Monday in various parts of South Cotabato to help save the remaining standing crops in the area from the continuing onslaught of the long dry spell caused by the El Niño phenomenon.

Leolito Siase, area coordinator of DA’s Bureau of Soils and Water Management (BSWM), said they decided to begin the cloud seeding on March 1 in response to an earlier request made by the provincial government of South Cotabato.

He said they will utilize a standby BN Islander aircraft for the cloud seeding, which will mainly be concentrated in the province’s 10 towns and lone city.

“Based on our latest field assessment, it’s necessary to conduct cloud seeding because most of the standing crops are now beginning to wilt because of the extreme dry condition,” he said.

According to Siase, the aircraft that would be utilized for the cloud seeding will initially take off from Davao City early on Monday and will set base at the Buayan airport here.

He said they will also tap the airstrip in Datu Paglas town in Maguindanao as alternate base in the area.

Siase said the cloud seeding would be done during mid-morning and mid-afternoon, which were time when the skies are usually clear.

Cloud seeding is the process of manually spreading either dry ice or salt into the upper part of the clouds to help stimulate the precipitation process and form rain.

The BSWM already started conducting cloud seeding in some parts of Region 2 in Northern Luzon that were hit hard by the continuing drought.

Siase said that for Region 12 or Southwestern Mindanao, the DA central office has allocated some P2.585 million to cover the costs of cloud-seeding operations.

At a current cost of P22,400 per sortie, he said the region’s budget for cloud seeding is projected to cover 70 to 80 hours of flying time.

He said the BN Islander aircraft can carry at least 350 kilograms of salt for each cloud seeding sortie.