How do you prevent the spread of drought crisis?

Question

Can anyone please help? We are experiencing "drought" here in the Philippines due to chain months of no rain. There is also water shortage and the rice and corn fields were dry and it affects 150,000 hectares, that's why farmers cannot start planting(August is thier farming, or getting the crops time). Our government had an operation "cloud seeding" to help rain. Is it also effective? I would love to hear forum you people.

Answer 1

What we do on our farm in North America to conserve moistures is avoid tilling our land.  We have found that the Organic Matter that is left in the soil after a few years help soils retain moisture. Organic matter is need for all plants and can accumulate by not tilling the soil. The best way to help drought is to save the moisture that is left from wet years.  

For more immediate results in conserving moisture.  I would plant direct into untilled soils.  Studies here have shown that there is as much as a 30 degree Farenheit difference on untilled soils, causing you to loose less to evaporation.

Answer 2

No prob. Look up the guy on this site who says it always rains on him and hire him to make rain. Don't rely on "technological fixes" but on real if mostly unbelieved powers of certain individuals.

Answer 3

About all you can do is pray for rain.  That cloud seeding thing is a bunch of bs.  A group of farmers pooled together thousands of dollars for that back in the drought of 1988.  What most don't realize is you have seed the clouds in the heart of them.  Airplanes cant take the turbulence in those great thunderheads.  Rip the darn wings off.  So pray for rain, pray for us too.

Answer 4

Droughts happens, it's a fact of life, and there is not a lot that you can do about it.  Cloud seeding might give you some temporary relief, but over all is not going to be the thing that saves you.  It generally hurts farmers first and the most.  Most farmers know this and try to tighten their belts and make it through until the drought breaks.  Unless you have a good underground water supply and can install an irrigation system, you probably will just have to wait it out and look to your higher power for help.  As farmers most of up have been through this before and will in all likely hood will again.  Some farmers will pull through and some won't.  Best of luck to you.  I wish I had an answer that would solve your problem, but I'm afraid that there is no such answer.

Answer 5

Cloud seeding can be effective if conditions are right, but it is expensive.

Perhaps going to a water storage plan to store water from the monsoon season. India might offer some good templates.