September 29, 2010

Philippines's Bicol gets funding for aquaculture projects

Bicol Region of the Philippines has received PHP76 million (US$1.73 million) worth of fishery infrastructure and farm project funding under the RP-Japan Increased Food Production Programme, the Agriculture department said in a statement.

Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala recently inaugurated four fishery facilities in Camarines Sur worth PHP60 million (US$1.36 million), which include a laboratory, a feed mill, a fish processing plant, as well as a training centre and dormitory, the statement read.

The facilities were built at the Regional Freshwater Fisheries Centre of the Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) at Barangay Fabrica in Bula, Camarines Sur.

At the same time, the department will be funding PHP16 million (US$0.36 million) worth of farm and fishery projects and farm equipment for farmer associations and cooperatives.

These consist of livelihood projects, three trading centres and cold storage facilities, 25 barangay bagsakan centres, three hand tractors with trailers, two palay threshers with blowers, two our-wheeled tractors, 15 collapsible tarpaulin grain storage tents, 25 tunnel-type greenhouses with drip irrigation facility, and three packing houses.

"These newly constructed facilities will hopefully address the shortage in aquaculture production, elevate the functions of the fisheries centre from a mere production-based aquaculture service centre to a modernised one-stop-shop of freshwater fisheries technologies, thus boosting the overall aquaculture system in the region," the Japanese embassy said.

Alcala said that BFAR will establish more mariculture parks, which are used for fish farming, in coastal areas in Bicol in partnership with local governments.

The mariculture park project was first launched by BFAR in July 2001 to promote fish farming as an alternative to the more conventional modes of fishing which have depleted stocks in the country's waters - a development that now threatens communities that still rely on conventional fishing.

There are now 54 mariculture parks nationwide, the department said.