The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) Antique provincial office is now in the process of turning over tilapia fingerlings in support of the Risk Resiliency Program (RRP) being implemented in the province to ensure food security, especially among the vulnerable sectors.

Armil Gayorgor, Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Regional Office 6 Project Development Officer II and in charge of the program in the province, said in an interview Wednesday that the tilapia fingerlings are for the implementation of the RRP or on the Local Adaptation to Water Access (LAWA) and Breaking Insufficiency through Nutritious Harvest for the Impoverished (BINHI) project sites in the province.

“The BFAR is providing free fingerlings to the RRP project sites for the beneficiaries to grow in their newly constructed small farm reservoir (SFR),” he said.

The SFR was constructed in the six RRP implementing municipalities this year, led by the DSWD and in partnership with the BFAR, other national government agencies and the Antique provincial government through the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office (PSWDO).

The 20-day RRP temporary livelihood or cash-for-work and cash-for-training was implemented first in Barbaza in February 2025, and followed by other municipalities, namely Sebaste, Sibalom, Pandan and Culasi.

“As of June 30, each of the 2,200 total beneficiaries in the six municipalities received PHP9,600 as wages for their 20-day work from the DSWD,” Gayorgor said.

He said that so far, BFAR has already turned over about 25,000 fingerlings to the four barangays identified as project sites in San Remigio for the beneficiaries to grow for consumption and to sell in the market for profit.

He said that as of now, they are conducting monitoring and capacity-building among the beneficiaries to ensure the sustainability of the RRP and address food security. (PNA)