VIGAN CITY (PIA) – Fisherfolks in Ilocos Sur have expressed their gratitude to the government for providing them with free fingerlings aside from capacitating them with training on tilapia production.
 
“We are again very thankful for the tilapia fingerlings because these will greatly help us, as tilapia growers, to produce more,” said Solomon Regua, one of the beneficiaries from Santa Catalina town.
 
Regua was a first cropping beneficiary who also received startup kits for tilapia production from the Department of Science and Technology Office (DOST).
 
Esmenia Llanes, one of the beneficiaries from Caoayan town, also said, “We can now apply our learning during the previous training by growing the tilapia the government had provided us.”
 
Llanes also underwent training on tilapia production and fish health management training, which was previously conducted by the DOST in Santa Catalina.
 
The DOST, through its Provincial Science and Technology Office (PSTO) in Ilocos Sur, recently awarded some 80,000 fingerlings in Caoayan and Santa Catalina that benefitted a total of 28 beneficiaries.
 
They received around 2,850 saline tilapia fingerlings each as part of the implementation of the Tilapia Para Sa Pamayanan Sa Amianan Project of the PSTO Ilocos Sur.
 
The fingerlings were provided as a counterpart of the Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, through its National Fishery Development Center, one of the partner agencies in the implementation of the project in the first district of Ilocos Sur.
 
Benedicta Quiocho, municipal agriculturist of Caoayan town, also expressed her gratitude for the efforts of the aforementioned agencies in providing assistance to their fisherfolks.
 
“I would like express our deepest gratitude for your patience and enthusiasm to deliver the fingerlings to the beneficiaries in our town,” she said.
 
Aside from the fingerlings, additional second cropping beneficiaries were also provided with hapa nets, fish fry mash feeds, pre-starter fish feeds and starter feeds as part of the intervention of project.
 
“They will continue to receive feed supply up to total maturity of their cultured tilapia,” the DOST said.
 
“Meanwhile, first cropping beneficiaries who were provided earlier this year with startup kits such as fish nets, fingerlings and feed supplies will only receive fingerlings as income from previous cropping will be used for continuity for this cropping season,” the DOST added.
 
Funded by the DOST Philippine Council of Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development (DOST-PCAARRD), the project aims to provide additional source of income for the tilapia fish farmer cooperators and provide immediate fish supply to indigent households in the said municipalities. (JCR/AMB/JMCQ, PIA Ilocos Sur)