Courses on food safety and land evaluation for fishpond development

“In all aspects, the course is excellent,” said Dr. Mohammad Kamal, National Expert of BEST-Better Fish Quality, UNIDO (United Nation Industrial Development Organization) upon completing the first International training on food safety of aquaculture products which was held 12 – 16 November at SEAFDEC/AQD’s main station in Iloilo, Philippines.

Also completing the course were participants from Bangladesh (9, who learned of the course from AQD’s website), Cambodia (1), Thailand (1) and the Philippines (3).
The course partly funded by the Government of Japan Trust Fund covered lectures and practical activities on good post-harvest practices, fish nutrition & food safety, antibiotics, pesticides, heavy metals, & microbiological analyses; good aquaculture practices; and climate change. The group also visited the Unifish processing plant for fish at San Dionisio, Iloilo.

AQD also conducted a Training on conducting inventory and evaluation of public lands released for fishpond development purposes which was held 11-16 November and attended by 31 technical officers of BFAR (Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources).

AQD resource persons lectured and conducted hands-on activities on topics such as basic fishpond aquaculture system, farm economics, basic steps in conducting fishpond lease agreement inventory, mangrove biology, basic mapping orientation, and aquasilviculture best practices for mud crab nursery, grow-out & fattening. The participants also visited different reforestation sites in Leganes, Iloilo; Ivisan, Capiz; and Ibajay, Aklan.

Mr. Jackito Ballebar, of BFAR region 5, expressed his gratitude to AQD for extending full support to the program and for being the best partner of BFAR. “I learned a lot of things and I am very proud that I am one of the beneficiaries of this course,” he added.

This activity was funded by BFAR and the Zoological Society of London through the German Development Cooperation (GIZ).