Agriculture Ministry and Sedena start a rain stimulation program in the Cutzamala System

By Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development

• The project will be applied from March 28 to May 7 and began this Monday with the installation of equipment and location of reagents with which work will be done in the polygon that includes the State of Mexico and part of Michoacán, with a coverage of 438 thousand 809 hectares, reported the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
• This Monday a first work meeting was held with officers and pilots of the Mexican Air Force and the coordinates of the polygon to be hit were established.

The secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development, through the National Commission for Arid Zones (Conaza), and the National Defense Ministry (Sedena) enlist the Rain Stimulation program in the Cutzamala System, in an area of impact on the Cutzamala dams, Valle de Bravo and El Bosque, with the aim of mitigating the effects of drought in the Valley of Mexico.

The project will be applied from March 28 to May 7 and began this Monday with the installation of equipment and location of reagents with which work will be done in the polygon that includes the State of Mexico and part of Michoacán, with a coverage of 438 thousand 809 hectares.

A first working meeting of Agricultura-Conaza was held with personnel from the National Defense Joint Staff and the Mexican Air Force and the coordinates of the range to be hit were established and the aircraft to be used was supervised.

The program, which seeks to combat the effects of the dry season and increase rainwater harvesting by 25 percent, operates with the collaboration of a King Air 350i aircraft from the Mexican Air Force.

The recursive chemical is composed of particles of silver iodide and acetone, to be sprayed on the clouds present in the area established for pluvial precipitation.

This is the third year of operation of the Rain Stimulation program, with 250 flights and an effectiveness of 25 to 45 percent greater rainfall, for the benefit of agricultural producers in desert areas in the north of the country.

It is important to point out that the process of spraying millimeter particles of silver iodide and acetone does not cause any environmental impact or contamination of the water given its salt and mineral composition.

The technology applied since 2020 resumes the development of more than 40 years ago, initiated by the agronomist Manuel Menéndez Osorio.

As of 2013, the project is restarted with substantial improvements to the chemical formula and the project is released as of 2019.

The project began in 2021 to impact one million hectares in a region of Baja California with significant results, which encouraged the establishment of projects in the desert areas of Sonora, Sinaloa, and Chihuahua in the summer of that same year, and a shared project for the semi-deserts of Coahuila, Durango and Zacatecas.

By 2022, the desert areas of Baja California, Sonora, Sinaloa, Chihuahua and the sorguera area of Tamaulipas and Nuevo León were included for fire control and the supply of drinking water to the metropolitan area of Monterrey.

The third rainfall stimulation season began in 2023 with the support of aircraft from the governments of Sonora, Sinaloa, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas. As of March 11, 250 stimulation flight missions have been carried out, all successful in terms of rain generation.

The purpose is to combat the effects of drought and for its use in situ, for the benefit of agriculture, livestock and forest areas registered in the work polygons.

The project has also proven its effectiveness in fighting fires, filling water storage dams and, starting in 2022, to supply drinking water to the public (Monterrey) and generate rainwater directly in agricultural areas that were already suffering severe wilting (Tamaulipas).

With these actions, the Secretariats of Agriculture and Rural Development and of National Defense, as well as the Mexican Air Force, endorse their commitment and responsibility to the people of Mexico to serve uninterruptedly, in all conditions and places, to strengthen capacities and water resources of the population of the Valley of Mexico, in order to achieve stability in the supply of the vital liquid, through permanent care of the environment.