BAYAMBANG, Pangasinan -- Fifty to 70 families under the government's Pantawid Pamilya Pilipino Program (4Ps) will benefit from the harvest of this town’s 10 fish cages located in Barangay Langiran.
Municipal Agriculturist Artemio Buezon, in an interview on May 30, said over 200,000 tilapia and other breed of fresh water fishes have been raised in the fish cages and are harvestable by June or July.
Buezon said the Municipal Government has determined that the 4Ps beneficiaries from Barangay Langiran will be the first recipients of the harvest.
“They will be allowed to buy a maximum of five kilograms for a minimum cost, like P30 to P40 per kilo, which they can sell and make a living out of it or consume for their daily meal,” he said.
He said the aquaculture in the area was started in May 2017 with only one fish cage and 200,000 fingerlings from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR). Some of the fingerlings were released in the lake itself.
Since the outcome was favorable, the Municipal Government constructed nine more fish cages and released 30,000 fingerlings, for P130,000, said Buezon.
“We plan to construct additional fish cages, so there would be more harvest,” he said.
"The fishery industry is one way to alleviate poverty in our town as we aim to make the residents self- sufficient with their food," Buezon said.
He said the Municipal Government also provides vegetable seedlings to the residents, and some 44 barangays in the area have already established their own vegetable community garden. (PNA)