Agriculture wants to tap dormant fund to build fish cages nationwide

Following the fish kill in Taal, Batangas, that killed 150 tons of cultured black carp, the Department of Agriculture (DA) wants to utilize the “sleeping” loan funds intended for the sector to build fish cages nationwide.

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said on his Facebook page the agency had proposed to use at least P3 billion of the P4 billion loan under the national government’s Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (ACEF) program, which Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III already approved during President Duterte’s state visit in Japan last week.

Dominguez chairs state-owned Land Bank of the Philippines, where the ACEF funds are kept.

The ACEF is a grant program that aims to increase productivity in the farm sector by providing the necessary credit opportunity to cooperatives and associations. It has an initial fund of P5 billion that may be borrowed at a 2-percent interest annually. Of the fund, P1 billion had already been allocated for scholarships and research.

Funding for the program is sourced from the collected tariffs imposed on agricultural products except for rice, which now has its own competitiveness enhancement fund known as RCEF.

Piñol said the proposal to fund fish cage farming using the “sleeping” ACEF loan fund is part of the agency’s “catch-up plan” to increase the sector’s contribution to the country’s economic growth, which was only at 0.98 percent last year.

The ACEF program was just recently relaunched after issues of corruption and low access and repayment rates.

For this year, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) is looking to establish at least 300 large fish cages per region, estimated to cost P1 million. This includes milkfish fingerlings, feeds and operational costs.

“Fish cage farming has proven to be a capital-intensive but highly profitable aquaculture project in the country today, with operators earning profits as much as 100 percent,” Piñol said.

Under the proposal the DA-BFAR had submitted to Dominguez, individual fish cage operators may borrow as much as P1 million while cooperatives may be allowed to loan as much as P5 million for their operations.