BAGUIO CITY – The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and the national Academy of Science and Technology, Philippines adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as their overarching theme and their research and development programs will focus on fisheries where science is critical so that the said sectors will significantly help spur economic growth in the country.
Science and Technology Secretary Fortunato de la Peña said the agency and its attached bureaus have expressed interest in determining how the country’s fishery sector will impact on the achievement of the SDGs in the country.
The gathering was expected to gather inputs on how the Philippines will achieve the SDGs considering that it served as the leading forum for the presentation of the results of scientific and policy research intended to strengthen the fishery sector.
In line with the Duterte administration’s economic policies, the DOST official pointed out policy recommendations on appropriate interventions to enhance the fishery sector will be submitted to the concerned government agencies and the private sector for them to consider the most feasible intervention to achieve the goal of helping uplift the status of the fishery sector.
Aside from pursuing research and development activities to explore available fish species that needs to be promoted in the market, he claimed the agency is also working out the provision of technical assistance to the fisherfolks in the countryside to improve their production of endemic species that command higher prices in the market that will give them higher income.
Among the projected assistance to the fisherfolks include the provision of sufficient production materials, packaging of their produce and the subsequent marketing of their produce in both the low-end and high-end markets.
As an archipelago, dela Peña emphasized one of the most important things to be considered is public cooperation in programs and projects that guarantee the preservation and protection of the environment as the one that will guarantee bountiful harvests for the fisherfolks.
He admitted the country must maximize the potentials of the country’s fishery sector because of the abundance of marine life in the different bodies of water, either in rivers, lakes, and oceans, to help lift the living condition of fisherfolks, one of the marginalized sectors of the society.
He reported the country’s bodies of water are major sources of high-demand fish products which are often taken by foreign fishermen encroaching into the different parts of the country that is why supporting local fishermen to harvest such endemic fish species will help improve their living condition due to the high market demand of such species.
DOST national and regional officials remain optimistic that the country’s fishery sector will achieve its maximum potentials once fisherfolk are given the appropriate assistance to significantly improve the country’s fish production, especially from the numerous islands of the archipelago.
By HENT
