The Department of Agriculture in the Caraga Region (DA-13) and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources -13 signed an agreement for the production of cultured bangus and tilapia fish varieties using locally formulated feeds.

In an interview Wednesday, DA-13 information office chief Emmylou Presilda said the undertaking coursed through the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) will assist fisherfolk groups in the region, particularly on the high cost of feeds for fish culture production.

On Tuesday, DA-13 Director Ricardo Oñate Jr. and BFAR-13 Director Nilo Selim Katada led the signing of a memorandum of agreement (MOA) for the initiative.

“There is a need to tap the local resources available in the region to produce cost-efficient feeds for fish culture projects and ventures in the region,” Presilda said.

Under the agreement, production of cost-efficient formulations of feeds from raw materials available in the region will be mass-produced and made available to the different fisherfolk groups who are into fish culture ventures.

“The technology in the production of the cost-efficient formulation of feeds will also be transferred to the local fisherfolk groups,” Presilda said.

Among the identified raw materials available in the region include soybean, rice bran, duckweed and fish meal.

The project will specifically cover the nine-month cycle of fish culture production from fry nursing until fingerlings and post-fingerlings up to grow-out production.

The project will be funded by the PRDP while the BFAR-13 will serve as its implementing agency.

The project will be implemented by December this year at the BFAR-13 Masao Technology Outreach Station in Butuan City. (PNA)