Addressing Food Security in Batangas, Philippines through Backyard Tilapia Farming

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic showed how food supply could become unstable when lockdowns and curfews hamper transportation and delivery logistics. Difficulties arose in producing and selling agricultural products (eg, vegetables, fruits, meats, and others). Supermarkets had limited or no stock of food supplies. In other cases, deliveries were postponed or canceled due to a lack of transportation or long lines at checkpoints, which would have caused the goods to rot and perish (Pamplona 2020). In addition, people from isolated towns could not commute to supermarkets for many reasons (eg, no public transportation, entire household under home quarantine). These situations highlight the relevance of food security in the Philippines amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tilapia is the second most important farmed fish in the Philippines produced in ponds (Guerrero 2019; Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources 2006). However, low production in the last decade was attributed to problems in tilapia farming, such as incapacitation of tilapia farmers due to lack of government assistance, poor breed of tilapia, high cost of production, and lack of capital (Guerrero 2019; Toledo et al. 2008). In 2019 and 2020, tilapia comprised 96% of the aquaculture from freshwater ponds in the Philippines. However, Region 4A contributed only 0.2–0.3% to this, indicating that tilapia farming in fishponds is uncommon in this region (Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources 2019; Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources 2020).