Agriculture Business Week

The abalone, a single-shelled marine mollusks (gastropod) commonly known as “sea ear,” is a highly prized food item served in Chinese restaurants. With the declining supply of the species from wild sources, the demand for it is increasing. Prices for dried abalone range from US$35 to US$80 per kilo (depending on size) in the export market.

The good news is that sea farming of abalone in the country is fast developing with the availability of hatchery-produced seeds; thanks to the research and development efforts of the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center’s Aquaculture Department (SEAFDEC AQD) based in Tigbauan, Iloilo.

One successful adoptor of the abalone hatchery technology developed by the SEAFDEC AQD is Rey Acap of Oton, Iloilo. After participating in a training course conducted by the department, Acap put up his abalone hatchery in a facility formerly used for shrimp fry production.

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Posted on November 28th, 2008 under Aquaculture. Tags: Abalone. Comments: None

Fishpond operators may now feel more secured on the health of shrimps as a facility that can easily detect diseases on shrimps is now operational at the National Integrated Fisheries Technology Development Center (NITFDC) in Brgy. Bonuan Binloc, Dagupan City.

Equipped with imported sophisticated equipment, the Animal Fish Health Laboratory is only the second of its kind in the Philippines, according to Dr. Wesley Rosario, executive director of the National Fisheries Research and Development Institute(NFPRDI) in Dagupan City. The firs laboratory is at the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center(SEAFDEC) in Tigbauan Iloilo.

Dr. Rosario said fish farmers can bring to the laboratory samples of shrimps that they intend to buy for detection of possible diseases. The laboratory will check if the shrimps being raised by farmers are infected with viruses that can spread to other fish farms and seriously affect the industry as a whole.

In short, the facility could prevent the spread of the Taura Syndrome, the most destructive shrimp disease, which was first detected in the Nile River.

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Posted on November 26th, 2008 under Aquaculture. Tags: Fish, Shrimp. Comments: None

To help tilapia raisers save on the cost of commercial feeds and produce healthier stock, Dr Redentor S. Gatus, regional director of the Department of Agriculture Regional Field Unit III, is conducting an experimental organic tilapia culture in his 3,000-square meter, fishpond in Candaba, Pampanga.

Dr. Gatus feeds his stock with the Organic Aqua Feeds (OAF), which is invented by Engr. Walther Alvarez who also invented Atovi, an organic feed additive for chickens and pigs.

Engr. Alvarez said that raising organic tilapia can be done when there is a profuse and sustained growth of algae, bryophytes, phytoplanktons, and zooplanktons in the natural habitat of the fish. Enhanced growth of these natural foods of the fish also results in the production of an ample supply of dissolved oxygen that tilapia needs. Aside from this, if there is a constant and reliable supply of oxygen, it wouldn’t be necessary to have an aerator to stir the fishpond.

To promote the growth of these natural foods, OAF is applied four weeks before the fingerlings are dispersed into the pond. By that time there is already a profuse supply of natural foods in the pond. Feed the fingerlings daily with OAF in addition to the natural foods in the pond, and the month-old tilapia will grow fast, remarkably gain weight, and develop their immune system.

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Posted on November 25th, 2008 under Aquaculture, Organic. Tags: Tilapia. Comments: None

For rice farmer and fishpond operator Cesario Manuel of Bayombong, Nueva Ecija, Pangasius raising is so.far the most profitable agribusiness he has been into.

He realized this when he recently harvested 1,076 kilos of Pangasius from his three fishponds with an aggregate area of 406 square meters. His stock reached an average weight of 950 grams at harvest. In fact, some of it even weighed 1.5 kilograms (kg).

With this bountiful harvest, Cesario is thankful to the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) and Nueva Vizcaya Office of the Provincial Agriculturist for having awarded him this project, which is a technology verification on the optimal stocking density of Pangasius. This project, says Provincial Agriculturist Felipe Panganiban during the recent Harvest Field Day, is one way to attain higher fish sufficiency level for Nueva Ecija, which is a landlocked province.

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Posted on November 23rd, 2008 under Aquaculture. Tags: Pangasius. Comments: None

A scientist who developed the technology of transporting live fish to distant places is eyeing the possibility of tuna ranching, which could tremendously increase the value of the fish.

He is Dr. Bonifacio Comandante of Dumaguete City whose technology could put fish (such as lapu-lapu, seabass and also vannamei and tiger prawns) to sleep while in transit and then awakened upon reaching their destination.

His prize-winning technology adds tremendous value to the marine products because live fish and prawns command much higher prices than the dead ones. ‘ For instance, live vannamei will often retail at P600 per kilo while the dead counterpart may only fetch half the price. The same could be true with lapu-lapu and other species.

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Posted on November 20th, 2008 under Aquaculture. Tags: Fish, Tuna. Comments: None

Agribusiness people have their own strategies. Some go for the mass market while others go for special niche markets.

Just like the A&L Fishfarm and Hatchery of Sampalok, Apalit, Pampanga. The company started growing catfish in 1980 which was profitable to raise for a number of years. However, when the competition became very keen because so many others got into the business, Augusto Tycangco thought of shifting to red tilapia in 2000. Red tilapia which is also known m the market as Kingfish, commands a higher price and the competition is not that many.

Marie Tycangco, the founder’s daughter who serves as marketing and sales manager, says that Kingfish is an excellent alternative to the more expensive lapulapu. Ex-farm, the Kingfish fetches P150 to P200 per kilo. The most desired size is half-kilo per fish.

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Posted on November 19th, 2008 under Aquaculture. Tags: Catfish. Comments: None

Milkfish (Chanos chanos) is out- “National Fish” and the most important cultured foodfish in the Philippines. About 90 percent of our milkfish production comes from brackishwater ponds with the rest coming from fresh water pens/cages. In 2004, we produced 203,000 metric tons of milkfish with a value of P10.9 billion making our country the top producer in the world.

Although milkfish farming has been practiced in the Philippines for centuries, the production methods have remained at the extensive level for brackishwater pond culture with the use of fertilizers for producing the natural food of the fish. While the average productivity of less than 1 ton per hectare for our brackishwater ponds is relatively low compared to intensive culture in pens and cages that can yield as much as 30 tons per hectare, only the former is considered to be sustainable.

For milkfish farming to be sustainable, there is need for methods that will not only provide a good amount of profit for the farmer but also cause little or no damage to the environment on the long term. With the present production systems, only the extensive culture of milkfish in brackishwater ponds appears to be the most sustainable.

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Posted on November 18th, 2008 under Aquaculture. Tags: Bangus, Milkfish. Comments: None

Two important developments are happening for bangus in Pangasinan. One, Dagupan City is trying to curb the entry and sale of bangus from other provinces to protect the reputation of the real Bonuan or Dagupan bangus as well as the people patronizing it. Two, a bangus processing plant will be constructed in Dagupan City with funding from the Korean government, through the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).

The Dagupan City government has placed “alien bangus” brought into the city market under a watch list, while the authentic Dagupan bangus is put under a tagging procedure. This aims to preserve the reputation of Dagupan as the bangus capital of the world and to protect consumers from buying the “alien” variety, which tastes and smells like mud. Traders from other provinces are now required to present documents to show proof of the origin of their bangus.

On the other hand, the Korean government and KOICA officials visited Dagupan City recently to confirm a grant of US $2 million for the project, which is due for release soon.

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Posted on November 6th, 2008 under Aquaculture. Tags: Bangus, Milkfish. Comments: None

The farming of seaweeds is a major industry in the Philippines that provides livelihood and income to thousands of coastal families. In 2006, the Philippines, the top carrageenan producer in the world produced 1,338,597 metric tons of seaweeds, mainly red seaweeds that yield carageenan, a hydrocolloid used in the manufacture of many pharmaceutical, industrial and food products here and abroad.

In recent years, there has been a decline in the productivity of red seaweeds in the Sulu Sea where the bulk of the production comes from. The drop is attributed to many factors such as genetic deterioration (slow growth), lack of nutrients, and adverse environmental conditions.

The application of chemical fertilizers such as ammonium nitrate and ammonium sulfate is practiced in China and Japan for seaweed culture in coastal waters. In the Philippines, seaweed farmers do not apply fertilizer. No studies on the use of fertilizers for increasing growth of seaweeds in coastal waters have been reported yet.

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Posted on October 22nd, 2008 under Aquaculture. Tags: Seaweed. Comments: None