TACLOBAN CITY - The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources 8, noted that aquaculture does not only provide livelihood but also helps address insurgency in depressed or conflict-stricken areas in Eastern Visayas.

Under the Fisheries Development Program, the Bureau noted a 110 percent accomplishment on target distribution of tilapia fingerlings, 119 percent on milkfish, and 162 percent on other fish species.

Cylet Salvacion Lluz, BFAR-8 Assistant Regional Director, said the offshoot of accomplishment is attributed to the increasing number of individuals and groups who are interested to venture into aquaculture, particularly former rebels.

For this year, the program has benefitted a total of 4,360 individuals and 199 groups in the region.She said the program started from the Special Areas for Agricultural Development (SAAD), where they learned that upland areas lack sources of protein based on their monitoring.

"The Bureau thought of introducing rice-fish culture or tilapia. Although the technology already existed, we reintroduced it in Samar by putting up a hatchery in Motiong town, which gave us a positive result," she explained.

She added that although BFAR no longer has funds for SAAD, the program continues under their regular program.

Grace Fenilda Jaradal OIC, Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation Section, said aquaculture is part of their intervention in red areas as part of the whole-of-nation approach under the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, especially in Samar and Leyte provinces.

"By providing inland areas with tilapia aquaculture, we are not only providing them livelihood, but we are also giving them food to eat," she said, citing that the program is now being replicated in other regions covered by the NTF-ELCAC.