Pagpananom og humay, mahimong madilatar – NIA

by admin | Apr 21, 2016 | Headlines, Local News / Bohol Balita

TAGBILARAN CITY, April 21 (PIA)–Tungod sa nasinating pagpadayon sa El Niño phenomenon, mahimong madilatar ang pagpananom og humay sa sunod nga planting season.
Kini matud pa ni National Irrigation Administration (NIA) Mario Sande atol sa Kapihan sa PIA kagahapon didto sa NIA Central Visayas Training Center.
Matud pa ni Sande nga ang panahon sa pagpananom nga kasagarang ipahigayon sa bulan sa Mayo, posibleng masibog ngadto sa Hulyo ning tuig o mas sayo pa, apan mag-agad kini sa tambag sa The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAG-ASA).
Tungod niining senaryo, gibutyag ni Sande nga sa kinatibuk-ang labaw sa 7,800 ektaryas, mga 5,983 ektaryas lamang ang ma-serbisyohan sa ikombinar nga 4 ka major irrigation systems sa Bohol – Malinao dam sa Pilar; Bayongan dam sa San Miguel; Capayas sa Ubay; ug Talibon irrigation.
Ang sitwasyon misamot sa ubang lugar diin tubod nga tubig lamang ang tinubdan sa ilang gagmay nga irigasyon.
Kahinumdoman nga ang PAG-ASA, nilakip sa Bohol sa 34 ka lalawigan diin padayon nga makasinati og grabeng epekto sa El Niño. (ecb/PIA7-Bohol)

Increasing Malinao dam holding capacity, priority over de-silting

by admin | Apr 20, 2016 | Headlines, Local News / Bohol Balita

TAGBILARAN CITY, April 19, (PIA) –More than the reported need for dredging the allegedly heavily silted Malinao Dam to increase its water holding capacity, the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) thinks of something more proactive.

NIA 7 Regional Director Mario Sande, at the recent Kapihan sa PIA revealed that the primary intervention NIA is pursuing is not much of the de-silting the dam, but rather on increasing the dam height by about two meters.

The move would increase the farm irrigation capacity to 470 hectares more.

On the other hand, de-silting the Malinao dam, according to farmers, could disturb the dam floor and reopen a hole that has been accordingly plugged to stop the water from draining out.

The proposals to de-silt the dam came amidst forecasts of a strong El Nino this year.

Malinao, which holds five million cubic meters of water irrigates a total of 3,500 hectares, a few hundred hectares short of its initial target of 4,740 hectares, according to director Sande.

Diminishing water flow from its watersheds and siltation has drastically rendered the dam’s water impounding capacity less efficient, NIA said.

Meanwhile, by increasing the dam height, the current holding capacity of the dam increases by three million cubic meters, or a total of 8 million cubic meters, Director Sande said at the forum which was held at the new NIA conference room in Dao.

The Malinao Dam, notably Bohol’s biggest artificial inland body of water collected from nearby watersheds is just one of the four major irrigations systems Bohol farmers are benefitting.

Through a visual presentation during the Bisita Opisina of the Association of United Development Information Officers (AUDIO) in Bohol, NIA authorities also said by increasing the dam height, the move would mean sacrificing about 50 hectares of farmlands which would be submerged.

NIA through Director Sande added that Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) has prepared a feasibility study and detailed engineering work for the proposed plan to increase the dam height.

The plan was for KOICA to fund the dam refurbishment, he continued.

But recent developments in the country’s economy shelved foreign funded projects over local funding, NIA’s director who has extensive assignments in Mindanao irrigation systems bared.

When that happened, KOICA turned over the proposal to NIA, while local experts studied the feasibility and its design.

From the design, a total revamp has been suggested by experts, and a P600 million is now in to start off the new project, Sande shared.

Over this development, NIA 7 which holds its regional office in Bohol, hopes that initial phase of the project could be implemented in the 2nd to third quarter of this year. (rac/PIA-7/Bohol)

Spilling the heat of government service, Kapihan flowed out of PIA in Bohol to NIA, where Regional Director Mario Sande relayed NIA services and concerns to the Boholano populace. Sande said NIA is pursuing more of the increasing dam heights against de-silting for more practical reasons. Kapihan sa PIA is broadcast over DyTR. (PIA-Bohol)

NFA chief endorses Eating brown rice

by admin | Apr 20, 2016 | Headlines, Local News / Bohol Balita

TAGBILARAN CITY, April 20, (PIA) –It took no less than National Food Authority (NFA) administrator to start convincing Boholanos to go back to the basics and rethink of consuming the healthier option in rice.

Speaking while promoting and launching the brown rice, NFA Administrator Atty. Rinan Dalisay pressed that what is believed to be inferior, low class and shunned unpolished rice is in fact packed with more fiber, proteins, antioxidants, minerals and vitamins.

Brown rice, owing to its seemingly inferior texture is popularly known as food for the poor, but Philippine Rice Research Institute’s (PhilRice) advocacy campaign director Hazel Antonio said it is food for the rich.

While Antonio calls the unpolished rice and not the pigmented rice the brown rice, she also said PhilRice believes brown rice, which is now a top choice among the rich, is not just for the rich.

Antonio is PhilRice’s advocacy campaign director.

For all the costs, the option for the healthier brown rice is not as trendy here that the NFA has to start rolling its campaign here.

In Bohol, while brown rice varieties are common, most millers process the brown riceinto gleaming while, knowing that while is the more popular option.

For Bohol’s Rice Processing Complex manager Alvin Mante, all rice variety can be made into brown rice.

By more and more polishing, the brown rice comes out gleaming pearly white, but the polishing shaves of the important minerals, anti-oxidants and proteins, Mante said.

Brown rice, or the whole grain from the rice is better because only the hull is removed that the intact bran gives it its distinctive brown color, nutty taste and chewy texture, better than the well-milled rice, according to a flyer distributed during the endorsement ceremonies at the Island City Mall Activity Center, April 20.

Other than the nutritive value of the brown rice, Administrator Dalisay also said the recovery rate of the brown rice is very high.

It means, processing brown rice takes lesser loses which can mean savings.

Dalisay, who speaks Cebuano, guided Boholanos to rethink about their health and pointed out that pre Hispanic natives eat rootcrops, gains and brown rice.

It was only after the Spaniards imposed the white rice as the good rice, that we start consuming the white well milled rice, he elucidated.

And while brown rice sells like P60-P80 a kilo, in Bohol, authorities in coordination with the stakeholders are offering the healthier option for a very low P37 a kilo retail price, Mante informed.

As this went on, loca NFA manager Ma. Fe Evasco urged farmers to start planting.

“We urge the provincial agriculture and the PLGU to urge farmers to plant and increase brown rice production,” Evasco belted out. (rac/PIA-7/Bohol)

NFA administrator Atty Renan Dalisay pitches for the brown rice as the healthier and the alternative farm product that even as much of the world’s food insuffiency can be solved if people just think. (foto by Ric Obedencio/PIABOhol

Bohol dance w’shop showcases Int’l choreographer’s ‘Blue Way’

by admin | Apr 17, 2016 | Headlines, Local News / Bohol Balita

TAGBILARAN CITY, April 16, (PIA) —In a rare press premiere, members of the Bohol media and lifestyle and entertainment writers gaped at the performance of a dance by a famed international choreographer and performed by local dancers, in the early evening of April 15, 2016, around 5:50 PM.

The dance, entitled Blue Way came as a collaborative effort of Romanian choreographer and internationally acclaimed dance choreographer Gigi Caciuleanu and the mentors of the 2nd Bohol International Dance Workshop, bared Lutgardo Labad, speaking for festival organizers and Kasing Sining, a local arts and cultural workers group.

Caciuleanu, a Romanian icon in contemporary dance joined the Bohol international dance workshop this year created Blue Way as a piece for four of the outstanding graduates of the first Bohol international dance workshop which is among the summer workshops under the Bansay sa Ting-init.

Caciuleanu came to join his former dancers in the international dance arena: multi-dance disciplined French dancer Gillaume Morgan who also prominently figured out in the Paris dance circuits and multi-awarded American dancer Nicola Ayoub who had been dancers for his choreographed pieces.

The 2nd Bohol International Dance workshop which ran from April 14-24, also has French modern jazz teacher and choreographer Karine Leven and Filipino authority for the traditional southern Philippines dance called pangalay.

Earlier, both Ayoub and Morgan, who mentored the first international dance workshop agreed that the goals during the first modules have been achieved.

Now in the 2nd international dance workshop, an ambitious goal of putting up a showcase using most promising dancers in a new dance piece by no less than Caciuleanu: the Blue Way.

The dance, like a story of a life of its own, progressed from a segmented individual flowing performance into an incorporation of a form, which picks on the motion and celebrates the human body

“Like a dance company, a group of human beings is a sum of different units: singularities with different bodies, different characters or temperaments, we are, all of us are equal because we are all different, our differences makes our force,” Caciuleanu explained.

Workshop completers Marvin Ablao, Jerrey Aguilar, Jay Banquil and Yassie Nalo performed the 30 minute showcase announcing the birth of the Bohol Dance Project Company.

The workshop which now has 31 participants comprised of students and young adults runs until April 24 at the Dr. Cecilio Putong National High School in Tagbilaran City. (rac/PIA-7/Bohol)

The Blue Way as presented to the media during an inaugural launch of the Bohol Dance Project Company as an output of the International Dance Workshop in Bohol, showcased Boholano talents presenting a piece choreographed by famous international dance icon Gigi Caciuleanu in cooperation with workshop mentors Nicola Ayoub and Guilliame Morgan. (rac/PIA-7/Bohol)