The city government of Alaminos is supporting catfish (hito) production as an emerging industry for food sustainability and livelihood for residents, according to the agriculture office.

In an interview on Friday, senior aquaculturist Milberth Ferrer said the city government and the office of first district Rep. Arthur Celeste provided around 400,000 catfish fingerlings last year to operators of small farm reservoirs in the city’s 20 upland barangays.

He said this is to use their reservoirs that collect water during rainy season and for water distribution on dry cropping season for catfish production.

“It is to make their small farm reservoirs more productive because they only use it for water. So, it’s already there. So, while they’re not using the water, they put fingerlings for the meantime,” he said.

Ferrer said some of them invest in catfish because they see that it is a lucrative business.

“Prior to providing the fingerlings, we prepared an orientation on how to properly take care of them, and how to properly manage the fingerlings that we provided,” he said.

Ferrer added some have harvested in February and expect more in the coming months with market price of PHP110 to PHP140 per kilo.

He said catfish fingerlings production has 15 percent mortality rate and can be harvested and sold in the market within three to four months.

“There are operators in some barangays but we wanted to increase their number, and we asked the reservoirs operators to choose between tilapia or catfish and they chose catfish,” he said.

The city government introduced the catfish during the longganisa (pork sausage) grilling activity as replacement to the oyster grilling activity, since there is a red tide toxin advisory in nearby towns of Anda and Bolinao.

A cookfest showcasing various dishes made of catfish was also held during the Crops and Fishery Day on Friday.

Both activities are part of the Hundred Islands Festival. (PNA)