Tilapia ZAMBOANGA SIBUGAY (Darwin Wee / 18 Oct) – Some 50,000 fingerlings of hybrid tilapia breeders were distributed Wednesday to Zamboanga City and Ipil town in the neighboring provinces of Zamboanga Sibugay and Zamboanga del Sur as part of a government program to promote the newest genetically improved species of the fish.
The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) in Western Mindanao said new hybrid called the Brackish-water Enhanced Selected Tilapia or BEST is expected to spawn millions of fingerlings in the next two months.
Virgilio A. Alforque, BFAR regional director, said the dispersal of the new tilapia hybrid breeder is inline with the fisheries program to promote the culturing of tilapia in Zamboanga Peninsula.
He said BFAR also released more than 15,000 fingerlings of the so-called Genetically Enhanced Tilapia or GET in Zamboanga del Sur.
"The tilapia hybrid can grow over a shorter period and attains higher weight as compared with conventional tilapia. It reaches a weight of up to 200 grams in four months," he said.
"This would be followed with a distribution program involving BFAR's outreach stations, local government units, provincial fish nurseries, private tilapia hatchery operators and grow-out fish farmers operating fishponds and integrated fish farms in the following months," he told the Mindanao Examiner.
The dispensing of the breeder is part of the weeklong celebration of this year's Fish Conservation Week, which currently being celebrated nationwide.
The hybrid tilapia breeder which came all the way from the BFAR's National Freshwater Fisheries Technology Center in Nueva Ecija province in Luzon is the newest genetically improved species that can survive in water with high saline content Mr. Alforque said.
He said they would also conduct a series of seminars and trainings on the new tilapia breed to fishermen and fishpond operators in the region.Most of the fish ponds, he said, are currently used for extensive culture of milkfish and prawns.
"This only shows that many fisher folks and fishpond growers in this region are still not acquainted in culturing tilapia and its potential benefits," he said.
Tilapia's meat is presently being processed into fillet and being exported to foreign countries. Its skin on the other hand has also gain recognition as one of the best source of raw material for leather products.
Mr. Alforque said that aside from technical trainings, the BFAR will also assist fishermen on how to market the fish. "The promotion of the hybrid tilapia is just one of many government projects which aimed to help augment income of farmers and fishermen and create more jobs in the countryside," Mr. Alforque said.
He said the BFAR is targeting to increase at least 10 percent annually the total production of tilapia in this region in the following years.Zamboanga Peninsula was able to produce more than 1,200 metric tons of tilapia in 2004, a way to far compared to other regions in the country.
Tilapia or St. Peter's fish is a spiny-finned freshwater fish of the family Cichlidae and native chiefly to Africa and the Middle East.They are economically important as food fishes, both in their native regions and elsewhere, where they have been introduced or are grown on fish farms. (Mindanao Examiner)
No comments:
Post a Comment