DAVAO CITY – The Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) has proposed the establishment of fish centers which will be interconnected through a digital platform that monitors the volume of daily catch and classification of fishes.
MinDA chief, Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said in a statement Friday the digital platform would serve as a virtual market identifying the catch and could be marketed under the Mindanao Food Supply and Demand Map.
Other commodities proposed for inclusion in the funding support are coconut, banana, rubber, corn, organic rice, high-value crops and vegetables.
“With the needed support for processing and value-adding, farmers and fishermen will earn more and are expected to produce more. With poverty addressed and productivity enhanced, Mindanao's economy which was stalled by the pandemic is expected to rev up and restart,” he said.
Piñol said the establishment of fish centers would be included in the listing of proposed projects under the PHP2.1-billion European Union-funded Mindanao Rise Program.
Fisheries and aquaculture are among the commodities that Piñol is pushing for funding support because of the sector's great potential.
“In my travels to the remotest areas of the country, even when I was Agriculture Secretary, I saw the squandering of opportunities in the fisheries and aquaculture sector simply because of the lack of a simple ice-making facility and cold storages,” he said.
He described that Mindanao seas are "bountiful", especially with the institutionalization of the annual closed fishing season in the country's major fishing grounds.
“For so many years, however, this simple solution to the problem of lack of productivity in the fisheries and aquaculture sector has largely been ignored and neglected. In Kalamansig, Sultan Kudarat, I saw large Tunas being preserved using only ice made from refrigerators,” Piñol said.
He added that it prompted the fishermen to limit their catch due to the lack of ice for storage.
“Under the Mindanao Fisheries and Aquaculture Development Program which I propose, at least 22 major fishing grounds in the region - from Camiguin Island to Tawitawi, and even Balut Island near our border with Indonesia, will be provided with ice-making facilities, blast freezers (when feasible), cold storage and fish processing equipment,” he added.
Those located outside the power grid will be provided with Solar-Power Generating Units which could be funded by another EU Grant Fund under the Access to Sustainable Energy Program, Piñol added.
He said a technical team from the agency has been working out to finalize the priority projects under the EU grant.
He said he has set three parameters in the prioritization of projects for funding: projects must contribute to reducing poverty in Mindanao by creating income-earning or job; opportunities, especially in the Agriculture and Fisheries Sector; projects must result in increased productivity, especially in food commodities to ensure sufficiency and affordability and, projects must trigger the immediate economic recovery of Mindanao.
“The program will be area-based, meaning specific areas especially those with high poverty incidence and great potentials for productivity, and commodity-based which intends to identify the major commodities produced in Mindanao needing support for added value,” the MinDA chair said. (PNA)
