2017, May

To beef up food security, Ilocos Norte is eyeing 1 million tilapia fingerlings to be distributed in all the province’s communal inland bodies of water starting this year. Arthur Valente, provincial fisheries coordinator of the Ilocos Norte government under the Provincial Agriculture Office said each of the 21 municipalities and two cities here had prepared an inventory of all possible sites for the one million tilapia program. With a ratio of 1,000 tilapia fingerlings for every hectare, Mr. Valente said the program forms part of the provincial government’s fisherfolk poverty alleviation program. With nearly 74,000 registered fisherfolk in Ilocos Norte that composed mostly the marginalized sector, both the national and local governments are setting their sight on agriculture and fisheries development to alleviate poverty.