A DECREASE in the fish production in Davao Region has been noted in Davao Region in the past few years.
The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR)-Davao reported that the decline started in 2018 and was due to the rough seas, high fuel prices, increased cost of inputs, and shortage of fry.
BFAR-Davao Regional Director Fatma Idris told SunStar Davao on Saturday, April 28 that they have projects to mitigate the impacts of the decline in fish production.
"One of the thrust of BFAR this year is to increased production. And one of the ways to do this is to disseminate 300 fish cages per region," Idris said.
"As per initiative of BFAR 11, each province must have 100 cages through the loaning program in order to attain the fish sufficiency level," she added.
Fish farming or pisciculture involves raising fish commercially in tanks or enclosures such as fishponds, usually for food. Cages are usually made either a hard plastic mesh or wire webbing. It is practiced all over the world since a large crop of different species can be raised, tended, and harvested in a small area.
Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA)-Davao showed the total volume of fisheries production in 2018 was estimated at 4.35 million metric tons; this already includes commercial fisheries, municipal fisheries, and aquaculture.
The volume of production from commercial fisheries was posted at 941.59 thousand metric tons, which went down by 0.71 percent in 2018 as compared to 948.28 thousand metric tons in 2017.
While the production from municipal fisheries was estimated at 1.11 million metric tons during the year. It registered a decline of 1.78 percent from 1.13 million metric tons. The subsector was composed of 85.15 percent marine municipal fisheries while the rest came from inland fisheries.
National Economic and Development Authority (Neda)-Davao Regional Director Maria Lourdes Lim said one of the improvements the sector should do is capacitating the fisher folks and provide more skills training development.
"We need to increase productivity, particularly in the fisheries sector which had a notable decrease in productions so we need to provide fisher folks with capital or financial assistance and its organizing also such as cooperatives," Lim said.
Lim said the region's gross regional domestic product (GRDP) posted an 8.6 percent growth in 2018, slower than the 10.7 percent growth in 2017. Improving the fisheries sector will help reach the regional target of 10.5 percent GRDP growth this year.