Senator Cynthia Villar has said the establishment of fisheries research centers in the country will address the declining fish population and high poverty incidence among the more than 1.5-million coastal fisherfolks.
Villar said building more facilities to improve fish farming capabilities was one of the long-term solutions to improve the country’s productivity.
“Many of our traditional fishing grounds are getting overfished and we need to create breeding grounds and hatcheries to help arrest the dwindling fish stock,” Villar said.
The National Fisheries Research and Development Institute, which is under the Department of Agriculture, has been in the forefront in setting directions for fisheries research and development.
The NFRDI said its programs and projects were previously conceptualized based on the Roadmaps focusing on the priority commodities namely; Tuna, Small Pelagics, Indigenous Species, High Valued Species, Tilapia, Bangus, Shrimps, Seaweeds, Cepalopods, Crabs, Shellfish and Sea Cucumber.
The Philippines has 18,500 kilometers of coastline, 26.6 million hectares of coastal (inshore) waters and 193.4 million hectares of oceanic (offshore) waters.
Despite this vast water resources, she said the country was running out of fish, noting that fish was the primary source of animal protein in the diet of Filipinos.
“We want to solve this shortage not only because fish is an important part of the Filipino diet,” she said.
“We also want to take advantage of the ever-increasing demand for high-value marine species in both local and export markets and to satisfy the world’s growing appetite for fish,” she added.
With the creation of these hatcheries and more in the future, she said the people were now assured of a source of food.
Through these facilities, the senator said “we can provide the opportunity to our fisherfolks to undergo training and improve present practices to improve productivity.”
Villar also noted that the Philippines, being the sixth biggest fish producer in the world, had an aquaculture production of over US$1.58 billion.
She said the fisheries sector also provided direct and indirect employment to over one million people, or about 12 percent of the agriculture sector of the labor force.
The senator has bren pushing to establish a provincial fisheries and aquatic resources training, development and product center in Aklan; freshwater multispecies hatchery and research center in Balo-I, Lanao del Norte and establishment of a fisheries research center in Abulug, Cagayan.
Villar, who was given a fresh mandate for another six years by more than 25-million Filipinos during the last midterm elections, was also instrumental in the establishment of similar facilities in 14 other provinces in the country, namely, Quezon, Albay, Surigao del Sur, Agusan del Norte, Surigao del Norte, Sultan Kudarat, Cebu, Catanduanes, Zamboanga del Norte, Leyte, Southern Leyte, Biliran, Eastern Samar and Northern Samar.