It is feared that the rice self-sufficiency level in the province of Bohol this year may be affected if the thousands of hectares of rice lands served by the Bayongan Dam in San Miguel and Capayas Dam in Ubay could not be planted with rice this wet cropping season from June to November this year.
If the 3,558 hectares (has.) of targeted rice land areas served by the Bayongan and Capayas Dams would have been planted with rice in June, the standing crop is supposed to be at the vegetative stage.
According to Evelina P. Putong, Chief-Department Section and Olimpio J. Galagala Jr., Manager-Engineering and Operations Division, National Irrigation Administration (NIA) 7-Bohol Integrated Irrigation System (BIIS) based on monitoring data as of last Monday there have been none planted even one hectare (has.) of the targeted areas served by the Bayongan and Capayas Irrigation Systems which is an Area Under Land Soaking/Land Preparation (AULP).
They said both the Bayongan serving the 2,858 has. of ricelands in San Miguel, Ubay and Trinidad and the Capayas covering the 700 has. of rice lands in Ubay have been affected by the dry spell and the experienced rain showers are not sufficient to fill the shortages of water supply.
In fact, they said that the Bayongan Reservoir had reached its “dead waterâ€level during the dry cropping so it will take longer time for this dam to be full.
However, Putong and Galagalabared that the Talibon Small Reservoir Irrigation System had started its irrigation water delivery last May 23, 2016 while the Malinao Irrigation System had started last June 30, 2016.
The water level of the four dams as of July 11, 2016 are as follows: Malinao Dam: actual -151.19 meter(m.), critical-146.5m, at full-152.0m.; Bayongan Dam: actual-43.90m., critical-41.00m. and at full-52.00m.; Capayas Dam: actual-31.32m., critical-30.00m. and at full-36.50m.; while the Talibon Dam: actual-28.12m., critical-21.00m. and at full-30.00m.
With the situations of the Bayongan and Capayas Dams they suggested the farmers to take advantage of the rain water for seed sowing while waiting for the required dam elevation for sufficient supply.(AtoyCosap)