THE Department of Agriculture (DA) on Monday said it is eyeing a $200-million loan (P10.4 billion) from the World Bank to fund its program that seeks to improve the country’s fisheries output and protect its “blue economy” resources.
In a statement, the DA said it recently pitched its Fisheries and Coastal Resiliency (FishCoRe) project, which seeks to scale up and modernize Philippine capture fisheries and aquaculture, to the Washington-based lender.
“[The project] would directly contribute to achieving key outcomes in the department’s Food Security Framework which is integral to the national goals of recovery and resiliency as we survive, reboot and grow in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic,” Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar said.
The DA said the project “aims to address structural weaknesses in the value chain to improve sustainability and resiliency of fishery resources, increase incomes of fisherfolk, and uplift the socioeconomic condition of coastal communities amid the Covid-19 pandemic.”
The DA added that the proposed project would be implemented in selected sites among the 12 Fisheries Management Areas (FMAs) established nationwide in 2019 by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR). Through this, the DA can sustainably manage the country’s fishery resources through a science-based and participatory governance framework.
“The FMAs include the country’s major fishing grounds, lakes, bays, gulfs and other areas that may be delineated for fishery resource management purposes, approximate stock boundaries, range, distribution and structure,” it said.
Citing World Bank country director Achim Fock’s letter to Dar, the DA said the Washington-based lender “fully supports” the proposed FishCoRe project, noting that it would “sustainably improve” incomes and lives of Filipino fisherfolk.
“In a recent letter to secretary Dar, [World Bank] country director Achim Fock said they fully support the goals of the project to sustainably improve incomes of Filipino fisherfolk and support resilient coastal communities through enhanced ecosystem management, productivity-enhancing technologies, aquaculture, reduced post-harvest losses, value-chain infrastructure, and related activities,” the DA added.
The DA said Dar had requested World Bank officials, during a recent virtual meeting, to fast-track its loan application to be able to get the funding by mid-2021.
“The DA-BFAR is tasked to submit the project feasibility study by November 2020, in time for its presentation to WB officials in June 2021. Once the [World Bank] loan is approved, the DA-BFAR will implement the FishCoRe project in October 2021,” it added.
The DA said the proposed FishCoRe project has four components: fisheries coastal areas resiliency planning; fisheries and coastal resilient resource management; modern and resilient livelihood investments; and project management and coordination, and monitoring and evaluation.
Image credits: AP/Aaron Favila
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