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Benguet farmers turn to fish culture

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet (July 26) — “My pocket did not improve, but my children had fish when they wanted it,” declared William Lapaan, a cooperator of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources in a Kapihan sa Benguet here.

Lapaan said he does not ask his children for transportation money now that he has engaged in the fishculture along Kennon Road in Tuba town. He started his fish terraces in 1999 but his 75 square meter-ponds were washed out due to a typhoon.. In 2002, he began developing 11 ponds for tilapia and one breeding pond for carp.

“Nilagyan ko ng 232 piraso ang unang pond (I put 232 fingerlings in the first pond) from which I harvested more than 25 kilos,” Lapaan relates. His second pond had 210 fingerlings and yielded 37 kilos. This encouraged him to tend the fish terraces up to the present. His fingerlings originally came from a fish market in Muñoz, Nueva Ecija.

Lapaan admits, however, that his income from the fishponds are due to the high pricing he imposed on his harvest and not on the yield of the ponds.

“Mahal ang benta ko kundi malulugi ako,” (I sell at a very expensive price otherwise I will not earn) Lapaan boasts. He said a kilo of his tilapia is selling at P100 among his neighbors and tourists who pass through Kennon Road. The average price of tilapia from Ambuklao in Bokod, Benguet is only P85-P90 per kilo. Lapaan said he had to increase the price to break-even.

Fish terraces benefits rice fields

Another cooperator, Rosalina Luz Labotan, said she was lucky to be a beneficiary of BFAR’s fishery program. She had invested on fish terraces, converting some of her rice fields and garden into fish ponds when she got a P100,000 financial assistance from BFAR.

Her farm in Taloy, Tuba is endowed with a flowing water source, a necessary component of the fish terraces technology being espoused by the Cordillera BFAR. Regional Director Rebecca Dang-awan explains that water should continuously flow into and from the fish ponds to ensure an acceptable level of dissolved oxygen necessary for fish production.

Water from the fishponds, Dang-awan explains, may be utilized for rice fields and gardens, which may be below the fish terraces. The fields will benefit from the organic materials from feeds that fish do not consume and from their own excreta, which fertilizes the fields.

Labotan still shares her water source with other farmers in Taloy. She claims rights to the main water source that supply water to the ponds and the neighboring rice fields and vegetable gardens.

Dang-awan explained that while the fish terraces need a continuous supply of water, rice fields are not deprived of the precious resource because the water flows continuously. When the ponds have to be filled, thus, stopping the flow, rice fields do not need to be flooded all the time.

Robert Solano, another fish farmer from Nangalisan, Tuba confirms that his farmer neighbors had told him about the increased yields after he had built his fish terraces. He said, the farmers since the beginning do not use fertilizers in rice fields but they noticed more robust plants since he started tending his tilapia terraces in 1998.

Ulang in the rice terraces

Aside from tilapia, Solano raises ulang (giant prawn), which he says, is very promising because in a period of five months his ulang are already 19-22 pieces per kilo. He also raises carp and eel.

“The problem with ulang is that the mortality rate of the fingerlings is high. But the price per kilo is also high that makes the venture very lucrative and inspiring,” Solano reveals. He also explains that the prawn fingerlings need salt water for 24 days, making it costly for Cordillera fish farmers to raise prawns.

His fish terraces inspired other farmers in Nangalisan. He claims that illegal fishing methods such as the use of sodium cyanide and electrocution have been slowly eliminated. These practices used to be rampant along the river and had since been controlled when Solano gave his neighbors tilapia fingerlings to start their own fishponds.

In May 2005, Solano acted as BFAR-CAR’s Magsasaka Director. As a fisheries director for one month, Solano instilled in farmers the importance of having fish in the farm and how these can contribute to the farmer family’s well-being.

The Cordillera is the only land-locked region in the Philippines. Its inland water bodies are too small for fish production, explains Dang-awan, but appropriate technology may improve its fish production.

Aside from the fish terraces, BFAR also encourages farmers to raise fish in their rice fields. Dang-awan mentioned that in a barangay in Ifugao, all farmers were given fingerlings to seed rice fields with protein sources for farmers.

Cage culture in the Ambuklao dam in Bokod also provides alternatives to Cordillera fish farmers.

BFAR is still conducting a research on cold tolerant species like tilapia. # Lyn V. Ramo for NORDIS

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