THE Department of Agriculture (DA) will be distributing 150 fiberglass boats, through the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR)-Davao, to registered fishermen in some parts of the region on November.
The distribution is part of their target to give 500 fiberglass boats per year in Davao Region from 2017 to 2022 to fisher folk communities.
BFAR-Davao Regional Director Fatma Idris, in an interview, said the distribution of the 150 fiberglass boats will be prioritized in Davao del Norte under Congressman Antonio Floirendo Jr., Sta. Cruz Davao del Sur, and Davao Occidental and will be given to those who are cooperating with the agency’s coastal management campaign and are registered.
Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol targets to provide 200,000 fiberglass boats equipped with tools in the whole country in which 3,000 of these are to be distributed to Davao Region before the end of President Rodrigo Duterte's term in 2022.
As of May this year, BFAR-Davao already distributed 358 fiberglass boats in the region with 669 beneficiaries who are presently using the boats for their fishing operations.
"We obliged all our beneficiaries to surrender their old wooden-made boats to BFAR 11 (Davao Region) to assure that they will be using the fiberglass boats for their business and not to use it for other concerns," she said.
The use of fiberglass boats, Idris said, is advantageous for the fishermen as these boats are meant to withstand the effects of climate change which ordinary wooden boats cannot.
She added that fiberglass boats require less maintenance and could be used with minimal repairs up to seven years which is likely recommendable for the fisher folks in the country to use due to less cost for sustenance and will provide stable livelihood.
Idris, meanwhile, said BFAR-Davao also continue to conduct training on fiberglass boat building to fisher folk communities in the region to expedite the distribution of the boats.
"Aside from directly giving them the boats, there are also chosen communities wherein we teach them how to assemble one so that they would already know how to do it in the future use," she said.
Last week, some technical team members of BFAR-Davao went to Manay, Davao Oriental to train at least 100 fishermen who were given supplies needed for the building of fiberglass boats which will be officially used in January next year.
Each boat will be shared by two families which costs around P70,000 to P80,000.