SOME 60,000 tilapia fingerlings were dispersed in Iponan River on Thursday, January 23, as the Cagayan de Oro City Government aims to improve fish production in the city's water bodies.

Pablo Rojas, City Agriculture Fishery Division chief, said they plan to make the tilapia fingerlings dispersal a monthly activity and utilize the one million fingerlings set aside by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources to its city counterpart every year.

"Ultimately, by improving fish production, we hope to alleviate our people from poverty especially among those whose primary livelihood is fishing in our river," Rojas said.

Rojas said in the past, they have monitored reports from fishermen about tilapia catch but this year, the city fisheries department hopes to conduct monthly monitoring of the actual tilapia catch to measure the program's productivity.

In 2017, Department of Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Pinol announced the Basil: Balik Sigla sa Ilog at Lawa project to replenish the country's inland waters with both indigenous and commercially valuable non-invasive fish species and freshwater aquatic resources.

The project targets to disperse at least 210 million fingerlings nationwide in major lakes and river basins.