Winners of 2009 Aquatic Technology Competetion Bared
The improved processing and packaging of fermented mudfish, the drying of seaweed with a heat pump and the intensive production of tilanggit in concrete tanks garnered the top prizes at the 2009 Aquatic Technology Competition sponsored by the Philippine Council for Aquatic and Marine Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology.
Researchers Wilma de Vera and Raquel Pambid of the Pangasinan State University (Bayambang Campus) won the First Prize with a cash award of Php150,000 for improving the technology for processing and packaging “burong dalag.” With thorough and scientific studies, they standardized the methods for producing a product that is pleasant in smell and more nutritious, palatable and food safe compared to the traditionally prepared product. The improved product is of export quality and is now being produced commercially by housewives of families living along Mangabal Lake, the source of the mudfish, as a livelihood industry.
The Second Prize with a cash award of Php100,000 went to Dr. Zenaida Angngarayngay and her co-researchers of the Mariano Marcos State University in Batac City, Ilocos Norte. They improved the drying of the red seaweed, Porphyra, locally known as “gamet” which is collected by small fisherfolk from the rocky coasts of Burgos, Ilocos Norte and processed into a high-value dried product that costs as much as Php4,000 per kilo. With a heat pump dryer developed in their institution, the keeping, nutritive and hygienic qualities of “gamet” has been much improved compared to the sun-dried product thereby enhancing its market and export value.
Tilanggit or boneless tilapia, the cheaper but at par in quality as its counterpart boneless danggit, can be produced profitably in concrete tanks under intensive conditions, according to Prof. Dan Arrisgado of the Mindanao State University in Naawan, Misamis Occidental who was the Third Prize winner with a cash award of Php50,000
The Aquatic Technology Competition (ATCOM) is now on its third year. It aims to promote commercialization of mature technologies generated by the National Aquatic Resources Research and Development System coordinated by the PCAMRD-DOST.