BUTUAN CITY: Fifty employees of a mining firm in Dinagat Islands province are now benefiting from a fish farming project provided through a partnership with a nickel mining company and two government agencies.
Lorenzo Cuares Jr., chairperson of the Valencia Regular-Seasonal Workers Association (VARSWA), said they collaborated with the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in 2021 to start a fish farming project to cope with the effects of the pandemic.
“We were able to access farm inputs from the DOLE while the BFAR provided us with the necessary training to improve our fish farm and make it productive,” Cuares said in an interview Tuesday.
Cuares and the rest of the members are employees of the Cagdianao Mining Corporation (CMC) who formed the VARSWA to find other sources of income after the pandemic affected their work due to limited mining operations.
CMC, which is based in Barangay Valencia, Cagdianao, provided the organization with logistical and operational funds for the Norwegian cage which cost around PHP800,000.
“The funding we received from the CMC was sourced out from the company’s yearly Social Development and Management Program (SDMP) budget,” Cuares said.
The project was making headway when Super Typhoon Odette (Rai) hit Dinagat Islands in December last year, which destroyed the fish cage and the nets of the fish farm.
“We had difficulties during the pandemic as we cannot go full time with the project. When Typhoon Odette came, we were devastated,” he said.
Earlier this year, the livelihood association managed to restart the project with the support of the BFAR, DOLE, and CMC.
“One year after the onslaught of Odette, we were able to make our partial harvest in the fish farm,” Cuares said.
On Dec. 18, the group manage to harvest some 3,000 kilos of bangus (milkfish) from the fish farm and sell them in the market at a price ranging from PHP180 to PHP220 per kilo.
“All our members will get a 70 percent share from the overall sales of our first harvest, and we will divide it equally. The 30 percent of the sales will go to the production expenses of the fish farm,” Cuares said.
He said the group will continue to develop the fish farm given its suitability in their coastal community and its profitability.
Sherrie Ann Cardoniga, CMC SDMP coordinator, assured the company will continue to guide the leaders and members of VARSWA to efficiently manage the project until it becomes sustainable.
“We are seeing that in the long run, the VARSWA will run the project themselves without intervention from the mining company, which is the essence of the SDMP program,” she said
Source: Philippines News Agency
