BFAR opens shrimp school

DAGUPAN CITY, Philippines – The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) here is set to open soon its shrimp school, the first in the country, that aims to empower interested students to become experts in the new technologies on shrimp farming.

Dr. Westly Rosario, BFAR center chief in this city, told local newsmen during a recent Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas forum, that once the project becomes successful, Filipinos would become the main operators of shrimp processing zones presently manned by Chinese and Taiwanese nationals.

The shrimp school would  be housed at the Asian Fisheries Academy inside the sprawling BFAR center in Barangay Bonuan Binloc.

 Dr. Rosario said that shrimp has a big market all over the world and the Philippines has a big opportunity to supply shrimp. “However, we need to invest on people who will work in shrimp farms,” he  said.

Other related activities such as sampling and collection of plankton, monitoring and handling of different equipment, green water technology, plankton identification, among others would also  be learned during the training period.

There would be 10 students per batch whose comprehensive training would last for 90 days. The second batch starts after 15 to 30 days.

Aside from the technology on shrimp farming which uses the Penaeus vannamei species, the students would  be trained on values formation and simple economics, said Dr. Rosario.

The school is open for enrollees for the 20-30 age group. Enrollees must be at least a high school graduate, fisheries course graduate or Technical Education and Skills Development Authority student.

“We hope after 90 days, the students would have developed in their hearts all the things we taught them about shrimp tending so that they could be productive in this field and transfer the technology to others,” Dr. Rosario said.

He added that the gold standard in aquaculture today is industrial aquaculture which means aqua farming must now include planning from hatchery to processing to marketing.

Inquiries may be made by calling Rosario at (075) 653-5412 or at (075) 653-4973.