Rationale

     The current situation in the Philippines with the COVID-19 pandemic shows that food security is an important factor in society that must be ensured. This project will set up small-scale backyard tilapia fishponds for marginalized families in Nasugbu, Batangas. These household ponds should have an available source of freshwater (e.g. deep well, stream, river, irrigation canal). The project will improve the capacities of marginalized families to develop and implement livelihood activities during the post-lockdown period. This will ensure that they will be able to address their basic food requirements, especially in terms of protein requirements.

     This project will coordinate closely with DA-Bureau of Fishes and Aquatic Resources to provide a free supply of tilapia fingerlings and feed to the cooperators. Technical assistance on tilapia pond culture will be provided in the form of workshops.

Objectives

     The general objective of this study is to provide immediate fish supply to poor households in Nasugbu, Batangas and increase the household disposable income.

Specific Objectives

• Development of  20 fishponds in Nasugbu, Batangas,
• train 20 fish farmer-household cooperators,
• conduct a training workshop on backyard tilapia culture and,
• establish partnerships with LGUs to support tilapia farming and processing in targeted communities

Accomplishments

• 15 fisherfolk households were selected as tilapia farmer cooperators and were trained on how to compute for the costs associated with backyard tilapia culture (e.g., cost of fingerlings, feeds) in order to compute for the net income of profit after market sale of the harvested tilapia.
• Fingerlings were delivered to the beneficiaries in two croppings. For each cropping, monitoring sessions were conducted every two weeks to measure water parameters (e.g., temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH) and determine the average body weight (ABW), which was necessary to adjust the feeding scheme. Harvest was done at least 4 months after the initial stocking of fingerlings.
• A livelihood workshop for tilanggit and smoked tilapia production was also taught to the beneficiaries. The overall training included fishpond construction and management, fishpond fertilization using organic and inorganic fertilizers, feeds and feeding, harvesting of stocks, post-harvest handling, record keeping, and simple cost and return analysis.