First monolithic dome rising in Cagayan Valley

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Agriculture is set to operate the first monolithic dome in the country that will serve both as a warehouse for farm commodities and evacuation center in times of typhoons.
DA’s Regional Office in Cagayan Valley is already in the finishing touches for the P10 million facility for agricultural products such as seeds and other farm inputs.

The dome, located at the center of DA-Southern Cagayan Research Center, is a climate smart technology that can withstand typhoons and earthquakes.

Cagayan Valley is among the country’s top agricultural regions, particularly on rice.

Regional executive director Narciso Edillo said the state-of-the-art warehouse would be a breakthrough in the region’s agriculture sector particularly for seeds storage to maintain seed viability and quality.

“This can also be used as human shelter or evacuation center during calamities, cold storage for agricultural products and many others,” he said.

“We are now fasttracking its completion so that we can already compare its advantages over the traditional warehouses,” Edillo added.

The idea was first introduced at a national conference of foreign and local agricultural engineers last year.

“Considering that the technology on monolithic is a breakthrough in the field of construction and its cost is comparable to that of the allocated fund for conventional warehouse, the office had immediately considered the project,” said Generoso Oli,  Region 2 field operations division chief.

The government is set to construct eight similar monolithic domes in the region this year.

A monolithic dome is a structure cast in a one-piece form. The form may be permanent or temporary and may or may not remain part of the finished structure.

“Monolithic dome existed 50 years ago with various uses such as churches, schools, sports facilities and shelters for humans and animals,” said project engineer Benjamin Progowski of the Monolithic Dome Institute in Germany.