Agriculture Business Week

The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) is reaffirming its commit to promote sustainable fish farming throughout the country.

As part of this commitment, it will be holding seminars, live fish display and other interactive activities at the Agrilink 2010 which will be held on October 7 to 9 at the World Trade Center Metro Manila, Pasay City.

This year’s team of Agrilink is “Good Agricultural Practices: Key to Competitiveness..” The event will bring together local and international suppliers and exhibitors, highlighting the latest technologies and inputs that will improve sustainability of the interconnected industries of food, agriculture and aqualcuture.

BFAR’s intensified activities in promoting fish production is brought about by a steadily increasing demand for fish and aquaculture products, both for the local market and export destinations like the United States, Japan and the European Union.

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On weekends and holidays, a popular resort frequented by natives and visitors alike of Bacolod City, the “City of Smiles,” is Punta Taytay beach in Sum-ag. Among the amenities enjoyed in the place is the much-relished sisi – the locally cultured oyster species.

Sisi (Crassostrea palmites) is smaller compared to the more common talaba (C. iredalei and C. malabonensis) grown in many coastal areas of the country like those in the Ilocos, Cagayan and Cavite. Unlike the culture of talaba which uses stakes (tubs) and hanging clutches (bitin), the sisi grows on rocks to which its young attach.

While the traditional method of farming sisi in Punta Taytay was with rocks on the sea bottom near the shoreline, the improved method currently practiced is with raised bamboo beds or papag. The latter method has increased productivity of the oyster by enhancing its attachment area, growth, and protection from its bottom-dwelling predators. Although the elevated beds entail more cost, they are compensated for by the better quality of the produce and the higher income derived.

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It’s easy to grow, delicious and has a growing demand in restaurants.

There are several fish species named seabass, including the Black sea bass and White sea bass (which are found along the coast of the United States). Giant sea bass is a native to the northern Pacific Ocean. Chilean sea bass is the marketing term for the Patagonian toothfish.

In the Philippines, when people talk of sea bass, they are referring to barramundi. A freshwater fish species, it is found in tropical and semitropical regions ranging from the Persian Gulf to China, and found as far south as Australia, as well as north to India. In Australia, barramundi is both wild-caught and farmed for export to the global market as a table fish, and some recreational fishermen enjoy the pursuit of barramundi as well.

Barramundi (scientific name: Lates calcarifer) is broadly referred to as Asian seabass by the international scientific community, although it is also known as giant perch, giant seaperch, Australian seabass, and by a variety of names in other local languages, such as ikan siakap in Malay and pla krapong in Thai. Among Filipinos, it is called by several names: apahap, bulgan, kakap, salongsong, katuyot, and matang pusa.

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A low-cost and effective organic fertilizer from seaweeds has been developed by researchers of the Southern Philippines Agribusiness and Marine School of Technology .

Fertilizers are major inputs in agriculture and aquaculture. The rising prices of petroleum-based chemical fertilizers have increased production costs of farms in the country and reduced farmers’ incomes. The use of organic fertilizers in combination with inorganic fertilizers is now being promoted by the government to improve farm profitability and protect the environment.

A low-cost and effective organic fertilizer from seaweeds has been developed by researchers of the Southern Philippines Agribusiness and Marine School of Technology (SPAMAST) in Davao del Sur led Gracilla Caballero. The technology was based on the observation that ornamental plant growers use the exudate or drippings of seaweeds for fertilizing orchids. To determine whether there was any scientific basis for such practice, the SPAMAST scientists conducted studies.

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Blue Fin Fish Farm owner Jason Tamano shares with us his colorful journey as he wades through the uncharted waters of the tilapia business

As a child growing up in Malabon, Jason Ta- mano discovered to his delight that he has this effortless and natural knack for raising fishes. Not only did he find joy in having fishes as pets, he also got curious about other aquatic creatures and their serene life under the sea. “I guess it was my calling,” he tells us. “It got serious that I enrolled in a fisheries course in U.P. in the Visayas.”

Tamano’s studies was cut short in 1993 when on a whim, he just decided to take a leave of absence from the university and tried his luck to make it as an entrepreneur in Mindanao. With less than Php20,000 in his pocket, a few clothes and lots of grit and guts, the adventurous fish lover headed to Dipolog City where lapu-lapu is endemic. Right there and then, he thought of buying and selling the lapu-lapu fingerlings.

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Aquaculture expert Victor Emmanuel J. Estilo talks about the science of raising Litopenaeus vannamei and the overall status of the Philippine shrimp industry.

Seafood lovers all over the world are always on a roll whenever they talk about the whiteleg shrimp. Scientifically called Litopenaeus vannamei, and also known as the Pacific white shrimp, these expensive and exotic shrimps are the main stuff of some of the world’s most fantastic culinary dishes.

Once banned for many years in the country because of the outbreak of the white spot disease, vannamei raising experienced a renaissance of sorts in 2007 and has been called aquaculture’s newfound star. The shrimp, which is native to the Eastern coast from Mexico all the way to Central and South America, is now making headway in the country although fishery experts admit we have been a late bloomer in vannamei farming.

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The culture of natural food for the hatchery of marine fishes is well established. The protocol for the culture of phytoplankton like Chaetoceros and Skeletonema for the larval rearing of tiger and white shrimps and the culture of the rotifer as first food for most marine fishes – like milkfish, seabass, snappers, groupers, and siganids – have been an integral part of their hatchery operations. Feeding the newly hatched shrimps and fish larvae with these natural food has been shown to be the only method necessary to achieve good survival rates of shrimp postlarvae and fish fry.

It cannot be said however, that the same is true for freshwater fishes. At present, no commercial freshwater fish hatchery in the country cultures natural food. The reason perhaps is because tilapia, the most popular cultured freshwater fish in the Philippines, can be successfully larval reared using commercial fry feed due to the big size of its hatchlings. On the other hand, other fishes like carps, aquarium fishes and even catfishes are stocked directly to nursery ponds a few days after hatching. With this method, it is considered fortunate to have recovery rates of 20 percent because on the average, only about 5 percent can be achieved.

Despite the breakthrough in the induced spawning technology, the lack of proper larval rearing techniques could be the main reason why the freshwater aqua-culture industry, including the freshwater aquarium fish industry in the Philippines, has lagged behind.

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Three times weekly, Panabo City comes alive as early as 2 a.m. when container loads of fresh bangus are whisked into the loading area, promptly sorted out according to size, iced, and then loaded onto vans for delivery to the market.

By 8 a.m. the total haul would have reached five to six tons, and 30,000 fingerlings would have also been unloaded and seeded into fish cages offshore to be grown to market size again in four months for the next harvest time.

This bustling activity is now a regular scene on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at the shoreline of the 1,075-hectare Panabo Mariculture Park in Panabo City, Davao del Norte.

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Tilapia Sex Reversal, the technology for producing all-male tilapia, has revolutionized the fanning of the fish world wide.

The technology which is regarded as a milestone in global aquaculture is widely applied in the Philippines and other countries like Israel, Thailand, and the United States. More than 50 percent of the Nile tilapia produced in ponds and cages in the Philippines have been sex-reversed.

The technology is based on the theory that the development of the sex organ (testis for male and ovary for female) in the fish can be artificially influenced by feeding of a synthetic sex hormone (methyltestosterone for male and estrone for female) during the “sexless period” of the young. Hormonal or induced sex reversal was first demonstrated in the 1950s by T. K-O. Yamamoto of Japan in the medaka, an aquarium fish.

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The Bureau of Fisheries any Aquatic Resources in Region 2 (BEAR R02) in Tuguegarao City Cagayan has something new to offer to those who love to eat tilapia. These are the tilapia longanisa and tilapia tocino which are now increasingly gaining favorable response from tilapia Pod lovers in Cagayan.

In fact, tilapia longanisa and tocino were among the promising finds at the Agrilink, Foodlink and Aqualink held last October 8-10 at World Trade Center Metro Manila in Pasay City.

The idea of making longanisa and tocino out of tilapia spawned from the research of Dr. Esterlita Calanoga and Angel Encarnacion of Cagayan State University and BFAR R02, respectively. Their study titled “Value-added products from Tilapia” aimed on finding other uses of this high-value fish and minimize losses as well as standardize the processing method.

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“The natural food present in ponds produced through fertilization is enough to sustain needs of the fishes during the early stage of culture period

After its separate introduction of 45-days delayed feeding and polyculture technologies in various parts of Cagayan Valley, the fisheries bureau in the region has shown that both can be combined following successful result of its demo project here. The demo project was established in the fish farm of Marcia! Balmores in Barangay Catarawan this town.

Following recommended stocking rate on polyculture, the 1,520 square meter fishpond owned Balmores was stocked with 6,080 pieces size 22 tilapia (80%), and 380 common carp (5%) March 20 this year. The 1,14o pieces hito fingerlings were stocked two months later, or exactly halfway in the culture period to avoid possible predation.

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The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Region 2 (BFAR 2) in Tuguegarao City and the Philippine Council for Aquatic and Marine Research and Development (PCAMRD) of the DOST in collaboration with the Santeh Feeds Corporation, a private company, have conducted the graduation ceremony for the Fisheries School-on-the-Air (FSA)-Mudcrab Culture at the Cagayan State University, Gonzaga, Cagayan on October 16, 2009.

According to Dr. Dalisay Fernandez, Chief Science Research Specialist of the Research Information Utilization Division of the Los Banos-based PCAMRD-DOST, the FSA is a free educational program designed to promote fisheries technologies in strategic areas in the Philippines. This is a relatively new extension methodology and an innovative approach that allows fisherfolk to learn new technologies without leaving their place of work. FSA is a series of canned radio programs covering topics on the culture of tilapia, mudcrab, pomfret, grouper, seabass, and Pacific white shrimp; andon coastal resource management, among others.

The FSA lessons take the form of a drama series, not compared to the drama programs that are popular among rural folks, to have greater appeal to intended audience. The recorded lecture from experts and a simple quiz are then included at the end of the drama segment to complete one learning session. The program takes about 20 to 25 minutes. The FSA mudcrab module consisting of 14 sessions was for two.

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An enterprising couple have put up the country’s first commercial Tilanggit processing plant, currently processing 200 kilos of baby tilapia for the local and export markets.

They are Victor and Susan Mendoza who put up Keño Foods last year in Brgy. Malamig, Bustos, Bulacan. The processing plant is a state-of-the-art facility largely financed with a P14-million interest-free loan from the Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (ACEF), thanks to the assistance of former Agriculture Sec. Arthur C. Yap and the current Agriculture Secretary Bernie Fondevilla.

The building where the fish are prepared before drying is air-conditioned, tiled, and the working tables and sinks are all made of stainless steel. Inside is a holding tank for the live tilapia and a walk-in chiller where the processed tilapia are placed before they are brought to the Multi-Commodity Solar Tunnel Dryer (MCSTD) developed by the Bureau of Postharvest Research and Extension. This is an efficient dryer that uses heat from the sun, drying the fish to seven percent moisture content in seven to eight hours.

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Marine fish are usually plentiful during summer, so it’s best for fisherfolk to take advantage of this seasonal rise in marine production to earn extra cash.

One good business is fish processing. There are, for instance, abundant tulingan, chabita, dilis, alamang, espada, dalagang bukid, galunggong, flying fish, and dorado in the market, and these can be made into value-added products.

The Rural Improvement Club of Barangay Centro in the town of Sta. Ana, Cagayan, is doing this already. The group processes cheap fish like parrot fish or mulmol and shark into longganisa, lumpiang shanghai and nuggets, and markets these at their Barangay Bagsakan Center, which happens to have been adjudged as the Best Bagsakan Center for 2009.

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