The Department of Agriculture (DA) said on Friday it is set to construct a P3.1-million nursery, production and marketing start-up subproject for the seaweed industry of Palawan under the World Bank-funded Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP).
Mayor Maria Angela Sabando of the Roxas municipality in Palawan said the project, under the enterprise development or I-REAP component of the PRDP, will be established in Johnson Island and will help farmers and fisherfolk from the marginal areas to improve their livelihood.
Palawan Assistant Provincial Agriculturist Romeo Cabungcal added that the project is one of the priority programs of the provincial government of Palawan.
“Currently, there are 5,000 fishers who depend on seaweed farming. Through the PRDP, we expect them to increase to 10,000, as with the hectares dedicated to seaweed farming,” Cabungcal said in a statement. He said the project will also help the province of Palawan economically, as the province relies heavily on farming and fishing.
According to the DA, Palawan is one of the country’s top seaweed producers, contributing 24 percent of the country’s total production. With this, the province has chosen seaweed as its priority commodity to be supported under the PRDP. The project will also be supported by the Global Environment Facility—through a grant on natural resource management that aims to “capacitate communities to conserve, protect and revive marine-protected areas, fish sanctuaries and other biodiversity areas.”