THE Asia Fisheries Academy (AFA) was inaugurated recently, promising to put Dagupan City and the Philippines even more prominently in the aquaculture world map.

Former House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., congressman of the fourth district of Pangasinan, along with Dr. Westly Rosario, interim executive director of the National Fisheries Research Development Institute (NFRDI) presided over the inauguration.

Rosario, who represented Director Malcolm Sarmiento of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, said AFA was de Venecia’s brainchild in order to hasten the dissemination of improved aquaculture technology all over the Philippines and Asia.

Without sounding political, Rosario called de Venecia “father of fisheries” because of the latter’s support to the many projects of BFAR since 1987.

The inauguration was attended by Dagupan City Mayor Alipio Fenandez Jr., his Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez, and Mayors Mojamito Libunao of San Fabian, Napoleon Sales of Manaoag, Rodolfo Columbres of San Jacinto and Herminio Romero of Mangaldan.

The edifice was built from de Venecia’s Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) while the furnishings and audio visual equipment came from a grant extended by the Japanese government through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

AFA was built inside the 24-hectare National Integrated Fisheries Technology Development Center (NIFTDC) in Bonuan Binloc in Dagupan City.

The inauguration coincided with the graduation of 39 out-of-school youth from Binmaley and Dagupan who underwent a five-month training in the academy on oyster culture.

Rosario said more comprehensive training activities will be conducted by AFA, targeting fish farmers and even fish technicians, not only in the Philippines but the whole of Asia.

He said AFA is now the best training facility in fisheries in the entire Philippines with its trainors coming from the in-house staff and researchers of NIFTDC, including BFAR’s foreign partners.

NFRDI is now finalizing the training modules to be used by AFA year-round with a provision for the training of foreign students at least once a year or oftener.

For his part, de Venecia said, he put together his PDAF for three years in order to build AFA which he hopes to help train people to attain more production in fisheries.

He said he also helped put up BFAR’s central bangus hatchery at NIFTDC which led to the reactivation of 15 satellite hatcheries all over the country, all of which are now used in hatching bangus eggs till they grow to fingerling stage. (PNA)