CITY OF SAN FERNANDO- Governor Lilia “Nanay” Pineda plans to put up Community Fish Landing Centers (CFLC) in Minalin, Macabebe and Candaba as venue for skills development training in post–harvest, fishery conservation and resource management.
In a meeting with the Provincial Agricultural Fishery Council (PAFC) held at the Executive House, Capitol compound, Gov. Pineda said that the CFLCs are part of the urban planning in Pampanga as it will serve as training ground for the cabalens who wish to start a small business from acquiring skills in all kinds of fish preservation.
“We will use the funds of the government in the right way. For livelihood, we can build a (food) processing building made from stainless wherein we can teach them (kabalens) techniques in filleting a fish or even preserving a fish. We will train them,” the governor added.
Gov. Pineda also wants the Kampangan fisher folks to learn the skills in food utilization and be responsible in using crop biodiversity.
The governor also requires them to have a database of all the registered fishermen from the different areas of Pampanga.
It was learned that Pampanga currently has 443 fishing vessel and aquatic gears and 24,688 recorded municipal fisher folks.
Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) Regional Director Wilfredo M. Cruz likewise presented the plans and programs for 2017 that centers on economic growth for marketing and promotion of a unique product of the community by maximizing the use of natural aquatic resources.
Cruz also mentioned on how the provincial government can aid on fish health management and inspection through continuous monitoring of aquatic resources, registration of aqua forms, inspection of various aqua forms and monitoring of fish kills.
Gov. Pineda said the provincial government will work hand in hand with PAFC to launch various programs that will answer all the multi-faceted problems in agri-fishery most specially issues on climate change and possible solutions in attaining food availability.
MA. REINA LEN LUNA
