OPA supplies backyard fishpond owners top quality tilapia fingerlings

BALANGA CITY, Bataan – The Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA)- Fisheries Division here continuously provides backyard fishpond operators with top quality tilapia fingerlings for their sustainable income generating projects.
Ms. Agnes A. Gurbuxani, Bataan OPA aquaculturist, explained the provincial government tilapia hatchery located in the upland village of Pantingan ,Pilar town, regularly supplies tilapia fingerlings to more than 50 backyard fishpond owners as part of Governor Albert Garcia’s objective of strengthening the sources of income of the residents and to maintain high food productive capability in the agricultural communities.
Ms. Gurbuxani has described the fresh water tilapia fingerlings hatchery with an estimated area of four hectares and has provided more than 500 fingerlings to each backyard fishpond holder since the hatchery project started in the 1980’s.
The growth of fresh water fishponds in the province has tremendously expanded with the destructive effect of Mt. Pinatubo eruption causing dangerous lahar debris to flow down in the brackish fishponds situated in the Bataan and Pampanga coastal areas, the OPA aquaculturist said.
Aside from acquisition of quality-tilapia fingerlings, the beneficiaries have acquired basic fishery techniques, post harvest and marketing procedures to ensure the quality of the marine products.