MANILA , Philippines – Residents of the Cordillera Administrative Region in the Northern Luzon highlands have gone a step further in the use of the rice terraces that have become tourist attractions and were once described as the “eighth wonder of the world.”
Now, the residents are using the age-old concept of producing rice, their staple food, by raising fish to meet the protein requirements not only for themselves but also for others in the region.
And what came out are “fish terraces” that, like their rice counterparts, have been carved on mountainsides. The ponds are contained by rock, earth and even concrete walls.
During his recent visit to one of the fish terraces in the town of Mankayan in Benguet province, Ben Semri, the Papua New Guinea minister of fisheries, was so impressed that he told his escorts he wanted to adopt the technology in his own country.
The result was the signing of a memorandum of agreement between Semri and Secretary Arthur Yap of the Department of Agriculture to help Papua New Guinea culture fish and improve their production.
“The agreement is basically to gather technical working groups from the two countries,” Semri explained. “So we’ll get experts, graduates from here (Philippines) and technical people and take them to Papua New Guinea to train our people.”
For instance, Semri pointed out that his country and the Philippines share the same geographical features.
In this case, there are creeks that run down the Papua mountains which can be used to develop the fish terraces that have become a success in the Northern Luzon highlands, according to Semri.
As the Papua official told Yap, “Filipinos are very technical people. You are simple…but you embrace technology and innovation and we’d like to adopt that.”
Yap acknowledged that the fish terraces is a project of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), an attached agency in the agriculture department.
Actually, Yap said BFAR experts expanded on the concept after they noted that traditionally farmers who own the rice terraces use these to raise fish after harvesting their crop.
Yap said the logic simply was this: Why not build terraces devoted exclusively to fish production in the highlands?
Its aim mainly is to help meet the protein requirements of the Northern Luzon highlanders whose supply of fish comes from the lowlands like in the neighboring provinces of La Union and Pangasinan, according to Yap.
Rebecca Dang-awan, the BFAR regional director in the Cordilleras, revealed that they have put up four fish terraces in Baguio City, more popularly known as the “summer capital of the Philippines;” as well as in the towns of Itogon, Mankayan and Tuba in Benguet.
Outside Benguet, Dang-awan said fish terraces can also be found in the towns of Kiangan and Aguinaldo in Ifugao province and in Bontoc, Mountain Province.
Dang-awan expressed confidence that as their popularity grows, more local government officials as well as private individuals would go full-blast in the development of fish terraces in other areas.
With the putting of more fish terraces, time will come with the region will be self-sufficient in fish, according to Dang-awan.
Today, Dang-awan estimated that the fish terraces contribute about 1,200 metric tons (mt) of the region’s annual fish production of 4,200 mt.
In the fish terraces, the BFAR raises “tilapia,” carp and a fish variety from Vietnam which resembles a catfish, which are grown just like in the lowlands but require less feed, Dang-awan revealed.
“In low temperatures, the fish do not eat as much,” she explained.
Dang-awan added the establishment of the rice terraces not only help solved the protein deficiency in the rural areas of the region but also created jobs for the people especially at this time when thel financial and economic turmoil is buffeting the whole world.
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