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Zamboanga Sur seeks MinDA help for 'priority projects'

By Prexx Marnie Kate Trozo

July 17, 2020, 4:49 pm

DAVAO CITY – Zamboanga del Sur Governor Victor Yu and his wife, congresswoman Divine Yu, presented three priority projects to Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA), which the officials said would help in the immediate economic recovery of the province.

In a Facebook post on Thursday, MinDA Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said the projects include modern fish-drying facilities complete with packing equipment to add value to the dried fish industry of the province, which produces hundreds of tons of sun-dried fish.

The second project, he said, is an ice factory and cold storage either in Pagadian City or Pitogo town to ensure good quality fresh fish from the fishing grounds of the province.

He said the Zamboanga del Sur officials also asked assistance for the establishment of a bangus fry hatchery and nursery to supply the estimated 10,000 hectares of fishponds with fingerlings and spur the development of Bangus fish cage farming.

Piñol said the Zamboanga del Sur proposals will be included in the list of projects lined up for inclusion in the EU35.5-million grant from the European Union for the Mindanao Peace and Development Program, which will be implemented by MinDA through its development partner, GIZ of Germany, and the World Bank's Philippine Rural Development Program (PRDP).

“The popular ‘Pagadian Bulad’ or Pagadian Dried Fish will soon be sold in neat vacuum-packs complete with traceability labels as the Zamboanga del Sur provincial government starts a program to add value to its fisheries products,” the MinDA chief said.

Piñol said while dried fish-making is one of the major livelihood activities of fishing families in Zamboanga del Sur, it has not been able to gain a large share of the market because of concerns on food safety and traceability.

The MinDA chair also said planning and technical teams from the agency will be dispatched to Zamboanga del Sur to assist the provincial government in preparing their project proposals.

“In the timeline which I set, all project proposals will have to be in before the end of August (this year),” Piñol added. (PNA)

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