The Philippine Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (DA-BFAR) and the Philippine fisheries sector are welcoming the New Year with a five-year national fisheries plan.
The Comprehensive National Fisheries Industry Development Plan (CNFIDP) 2016-2020 is set to launch in February this year, during the first National Fisheries Industry Summit.
The CNFIDP 2016-2020 is a product of a consensus-building via a three-part series of fisheries stakeholders’ workshops in capture fisheries, aquaculture, post-harvest and marketing subsectors.
“With a plan crafted by the stakeholders for the fisheries industry through participatory approach, we are very confident that we will be seeing a more improved and globally competitive Philippine fisheries in the next five years,” Agriculture Undersecretary and BFAR national director Asis G. Perez said. He added that the CNFIDP serves its purpose of promoting the optimal development and long-term sustainability of benefits derived from fisheries and aquatic resources.
BFAR will also see an increase in budget from last year’s 6.3 billion pesos to 6.7 billion pesos, which Mr Perez said will be utilised in funding tailor-made livelihood programs and projects for the fisheries sector.
On top of the priority projects for this year is the completion of more than 500 Community Fish Landing Centers (CFLCs) in strategic coastal communities to reduce fisheries post-harvest losses from 25% to 18% or even lower.
This year, BFAR will also continue to provide targeted interventions for fisherfolk with the aid of its enhanced registries. Since its launch in 2013, the National Program for Municipal Fisherfolk Registration or FishR has now registered over 1.6 million municipal fisherfolk. Also, an offshoot of the FishR program, the on-going National Program for Municipal Fishing Vessels and Gears Registration or BoatR, which started from zero, has already registered over 138,000 municipal fishing vessels.
