BFAR presents plan to rehabilitate fishing industry in W. Visayas
The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) here has allotted a bigger portion of its proposed budget for the rehabilitation of the fishery sector in the region to the aquaculture industry.
BFAR regional director Drusila Esther Bayate said their agency's rehabilitation plan will focus on the recovery of aquaculture and captured fishery sectors to restore the production areas that were affected by typhoon Frank as soon as possible.
In her proposal, Bayate allotted P159 million to aquaculture and P1.1 million to the captured fisheries.
"We will prioritize projects with short gestation period, seaweed projects and distribution of fingerlings for the aquaculture. For the captured fisheries, we want to replace the lost or damaged fishing gears as soon as we can," she said.
On the other hand, she added that owners of commercial fishing boats that were damaged by the typhoon are encouraged to access the interest-free loan of the Agriculture Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (ACEF).
Including the commercial fishing sector, the damages in Panay and Negros Island have reached P3.3 billion.
In Negros Occidental alone, some 24 fishing vessels engaged in commercial fishing have capsized or still missing while some municipal fisherfolks have lost their gears.
Around 15,000 out of the 66,000 hectares of fishpond in the region were damaged which translated to about 73,000 metric tons of damaged production.
The budget for the rehabilitation will be sourced out from the P15-billion supplemental budget which was approved on first reading at the House of Congress last week. (PNA)