Seaweed farmers urged to avail of ACEF funds
Seaweed industry players in the Philippines are encouraged to take advantage of the P5 billion funds provided by the government under the Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (ACEF) lending program to help the industry regain its position as leading seaweed producer in the world.
Senator Cynthia A credit to cooperatives and Villar, chairperson of the associations, and micro and Senate Committee on small-scale enterprises, Agriculture and Food, for the acquisition made this call yesterday and establishment of during the Philippine production, postharvest, Seaweed Congress held at and processing machinery, the Waterfront Cebu City equipment and facilities. Hotel and Casinos. The Land Bank of
Villar said amid the Philippines manages the challenges made by the credit facility funded seaweed farmers and out of the Fund and shall producers, including determine the eligibility climate change, requirements and set the competition, and erratic required loan security or production performance, collateral and reasonable among others, industry interest for the loan. players should also be The seaweed sector, quick in reaching out to which exports 90 percent of the government, as there its total production, Villar are a number of programs said would also expect and even financial grants favorable bills that will be waiting to be utilized. crafted to boost the aquatic
Villar cited the ACEF resources, including program as something seaweed farming. seaweed farmers can avail Villar also mentioned of to boost their production. the importance of providing
ACEF aims to funds for research and increase the productivity development, education— of farmers and fisherfolk teaching farmers to adopt by providing the necessary modern farming methods.
Seaweed Industry Association of the Philippines (SIAP) chairman emeritus Maximo Ricohermoso said that climate change, the unpredictable weather cycle resulted to dwindling production.
This is the major concern faced by seaweed producers or farmers at this time, together with problems in competition.
Since 2004, the production of the raw seaweed as well as the semi-refined has been declining due to quality problem and the pricing structure.
The seaweed industry used to provide livelihood to more than 250,000 farmers. Now, this figure has been drastically reduced to about 100,000 and still going down.
Likewise, the demand for refined and semirefined carrageenan has phenomenally grown for the past 20 years or so.
“The urgent concern of the industry right now is how to keep up with the demand, as our production is affected by changing weather pattern,” said Ricohermoso.