Maria Ravilla T. Luhan and Evelyn Grace Ayson SEAFDEC’s Seaweed Ecology and Breeding and Seed Production of Marine Fish visited the municipalities of Labangan and Tukuran as well as this city upon the invitation of first district representative Victor Yu to conduct a two-day consultative meeting with the seaweed farmers at the Dynasty Beach Resort, Lower Bayao, Tukuran to draw up measures to help out the marginal seaweed farmers.
Yu said seaweed farmers in the first district have been producing less due to climate change and the “ice-ice” or whitening disease that hits several seaweed farms.
It can be recalled that seaweed farming provides a source of livelihood to thousands of families living in the coastal areas who are directly involved in the production, trading and exporting said product in Mindanao.
Yu said the government is coming up with certain solutions to address the concerns of the seaweed sector.
“With the technical assistance of SEAFDEC, we are coming up with productivity enhancement techniques through the adoption of seaweed tissue culture technology, etc,” he added.
Yu said he wanted to increase not only the production of seaweeds but also of fishes in the area.
Meanwhile, Roel Dela Torre, member of Small ‘Likum-Likum’ Fisherfolk Association of Pagadian City said he was happy that the researchers provided them with the necessary knowledge in the production of seaweeds saying that it can help improve the standard of living of local farmers.