BAGUIO CITY – The Cordillera office of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA-CAR) disclosed that the region’s total annual fish production increased by 8.7 percent from 3,865.5 metric tons in 2015 to 4,202.2 metric tons last year.
In a report by the PSA-CAR, the increase in the region’s fish production was brought about by the contributions of both aquaculture and inland wherein Ifugao was consistently the top fish producer in the region with a share of 53.4 percent of the total regional production last year.
Of the overall regional fish production, the PSA-CAR stated 2,963.7 metric tons or 70.5 percent came from aquaculture, and 1,238.5 metric tons or 29.5 percent came from inland fish production.
Abra was a far second in terms of fish production with 17.1 percent share of the regional fish production followed by Kalingga with 11.1 percent share, Benguet with 9.4 percent share and Apayao with 9.6 percent share.
Mountain Province had the smallest share of the region’s overall fish production, with an output of 21.6 metric tons which represents only 0.5 percent of the fish produced regionwide.
The PSA-CAR defined inland fishing as fishing done in lakes, rivers and dams using simple ears and fishing boats, some of which are non-motorized with a capacity of less than 3 gross tons or fishing not requiring the use of fishing boats.
The PSA-CAR noted that Ifugao remained the top inland fish producer with 325.9 metric tons of fish harvested which was 26.3 percent of the total inland fishery regionwide.
Abra and Kalinga trailed Ifugao with 24.9 percent and 24.2 percent shares while Apayao came in fourth with 15.2 percent share of the total regional inland fish production.
Benguet and Mountain Province had the smallest shares in the inland fish production with 7.7 percent and 0.7 percent shares, respectively.
On the other hand, the PSA-CAR defined aquaculture as a fishery operation involving all forms of raising and culturing of fish and other fishery species in fresh, brackish and marine water areas wherein Ifugao posted the highest production with 1,916.8 metric tons and an area harvested of 238.2 hectares.
Abra was again a distant second with 399.1 metric tons with an area harvested of 153.7 hectares while Mountain Province had the least production in the region with only 12.7 metric tons and an area harvested of only 4.7 hectares.
The PSA-CAR generates statistics for fresh water municipal aquaculture and municipal inland fishing wherein production surveys are conducted quarterly in sample aquaculture farms and sample inland fishing households.
The respondents of the surveys are aquafarm operators, fishermen or other knowledgeable members of the household and generated quarterly fisheries production is included in the quarterly data review process of the agency at the provincial, regional and national levels.
After the data validation, the PSA-CAR explained preliminary estimates are made available to data users through the various platforms.
By HENT
