MCPI conducts training on seaweed farming

MCPI conducts training on seaweed farming
Manila Bulletin
July 31, 2010

MCPI Corporation is helping more fishermen tap other areas of the lucrative marine market by teaching them how to produce high-quality seaweeds.

Twenty-four fishermen of the SECAFEE Integrated Development Cooperative underwent a three-day training on integrated seaweeds farming recently at MCPI's Ocean Farming and Research Center in Danajon Reef, Bien Unido, Bohol.

The project is in partnership with the German Development Service/Deutscher Entwicklungsdienst (DED), Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) and Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP). It is sponsored by MCPI, BFAR and DED's Strategic Corporate-Community Partnerships for Social Progress (SCOPE) Program, which runs for two years.

The training was provided for the fishermen and farmers of Dalaguete, Cebu and Guindacpan and Calituban, Bohol.

German Consultant for SCOPE Janina Wohlgemuth explains, “The goal of the project is to generate a long-term alternative source of income for the people in those three towns. Most of them are fisherfolk and with decreasing fishing yields, they are finding it harder and harder to provide for their families.”

The project also aims to establish cooperation between the farmers and MCPI Corporation in the long run, so that the farmers will have a secure market for the seaweed they are going to plant.

MCPI and DED will further assist the fisherfolk in setting up a 2.5-hectare seaweed farm which will expand to eight hectares after 3 planting cycles. Some of the harvested seaweeds will be given to the Dalaguete farmers and other PBSP-supported farmers in Bohol so they can start their farms in the next planting cycle. A second part of the harvested seaweeds will be used to grow the farm in Guindacpan and the rest will be sold to MCPI.

Wohlgemuth added, “An additional outcome of the training is the protection of the environment. It discourages dynamite and cyanide fishing present in the area as these fishing practices also affect the seaweed farms. Additionally, the seaweed farms serve as a habitat for many marine species.”