ILOILO CITY, Aug. 9 -- Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol ordered the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) to review and validate all existing fishpond areas.
In a press conference Tuesday evening attended by heads of the department’s attached agencies, Piñol said that fishpond areas which are unutilized and unproductive shall be canceled.
“I will order the cancellation of fishpond leasing agreements (FLAs). We have to make our areas productive,” he said.
Piñol made the order as he urged new graduates of fishery schools and agricultural schools to find investment opportunities, one of which is to develop fishpond areas.
“We are encouraging our young people, organize and identify what you want to do because we in the Department of Agriculture right now under the leadership President (Rodrigo) Duterte will finance agri people and lure them back in farms and the fishing grounds,” he stated.
Meantime, BFAR-6 director Remia Aparri said that the directive is very timely and the law states that FLAs of abandoned fishponds must be cancelled.
[http://media]
She confirmed that there a lot of abandoned fishponds where mangroves thrive. Some lessors decided to give up due to financial constraint, such as capitalization or their income is not enough to cover their expenses.
Once the FLAs is cancelled the property will go back to the government. The concerned agency will determine if what will be done to the fishpond dependent on the status. She said that there are areas that could no longer be utilized as fishponds. Otherwise, BFAR will recommend the aquasilvi culture project.
Meantime, existing fishpond operators are provided inputs such as free fingerlings, technology and technical assistance to culture milkfish.
In exchange, they only have to provide BFAR with data on their production for data banking purposes.
BFAR data showed that Western Visayas has 1,523 fishpond arewas covering 14, 403 hectares.
Piñol, who visited Guimaras, Iloilo and Antique as part of his provincial sorties, August 8-9, turned over PHP233 million worth of farm support to qualified farmers and fisherfolks. (PNA)
* Stay at Home and START YOUR OWN blog site, business or personal website, or e-commerce store at
www.wirenine.comLinkback:
https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=104262.0
