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Filipinos rely heavily on aquaculture, especially tilapia, to meet their protein needs. About 12% of their animal protein consumption comes from farmed tilapia. Meanwhile, up to 30% of the fishery and seafood products they consume are locally farmed.
The Philippines is one of the countries most vulnerable to extreme weather events and climate-related disasters. Climate and environmental stresses in the Philippines have led to significant annual declines in tilapia production over the past decade. Its main tilapia-producing areas are frequently hit by severe weather systems and related disasters, such as floods or prolonged droughts. Freshwater fish ponds account for 50 to 55 percent of total tilapia aquaculture production in the Philippines. However, this farming method is particularly vulnerable to climate-related threats and is often slow to recover due to recurring severe weather events.
Losing tilapia supplies will have a huge impact on the nutrition and food security of local residents, especially those with lower incomes, who consume 4.7 kg of tilapia per capita per year. To ensure that tilapia is available, accessible and affordable to the growing population, FAO is supporting the Philippine government to improve the climate resilience of tilapia farmers, mainly those engaged in freshwater pond farming.
Tilapia plays an important role in food security and nutrition in the Philippines. At less than $2.50 per kilogram, tilapia is a cheaper source of animal protein compared to pork, chicken and other aquatic products. Tilapia is the most consumed farmed fish in the country, accounting for at least 12% of the animal protein intake of Filipinos of all socioeconomic classes. But over the past decade, average tilapia production has declined by 0.7% per year.
Climate and environmental stress are the main reasons for this decline. Extreme temperatures and heavy rainfall can cause sudden changes in important water parameters such as water temperature, pH and oxygen content, affecting tilapia growth, reproductive success and even causing mass fish kills.
“While we cannot control climate and weather, we can improve farmers’ resilience to the negative impacts of external events to ensure that pond tilapia farming remains profitable and, in turn, ensures access to tilapia for the growing population,” explained Roy Ortega of the Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (DA-BFAR).
Improving climate resilience in aquaculture
FAO, in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture’s Fisheries and Aquaculture Department, is working with tilapia farmers engaged in freshwater pond farming, one of the farming systems most vulnerable to climate change.
The project also demonstrated the effective use of key agricultural inputs such as portable water quality monitors on farm pilots. The project also partnered with the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) to install an Automatic Weather Station (AWS) and with the Caraga State University to launch Web-based platform The system sends SMS alerts to tilapia farmers. AWS is a monitoring station equipped with different sensors that measure weather parameters in real time. These monitoring stations can be deployed even in remote areas and provide early warning advisories for thunderstorms, heavy rains, and extreme temperatures that are relevant to aquaculture operations.
Through project-funded training, tilapia farmers, producer groups and local government technicians practiced using the online platform to send early warning information on weather and climate events.
Training and knowledge sharing
The training provided by the project helped DA-BFAR and local government technicians to assess pond production systems and resilience. They also learned how to properly use AWS and how to observe the weather in a specialized “community hydrometeorology” training.
This enabled the government to better monitor and predict local weather conditions in and around the pilot areas, and provide technical support to tilapia farmers. Early warning information provided guidance to tilapia farmers, helping them to make the best use of inputs and offering advice on weather events, such as delaying feeding times due to an approaching thunderstorm, or ensuring the safety of farm workers and equipment in the event of a tropical cyclone.
A series of farmer expert workshops were also held in order to integrate scientific knowledge with farmers’ practical field experience. In short, the workshops developed a knowledge sharing and documentation process that enabled farmers and experts to link key concepts in agrometeorology (e.g. weather systems) to aquaculture management. This led to the development of nine knowledge products to guide practitioners and fish farmers in managing the impacts of weather systems. These exercises started with tilapia production but have been expanded to other commercially important aquaculture commodities.
During the 2015-2016 El Niño period, the project also provided tilapia farmers with aquaculture advisory services, providing a brief explanation of the El Niño phenomenon and its impacts on freshwater fish farming systems, including indicators, mitigation strategies and adaptation measures.
go ahead
From the country to the farm level, government agencies and aquaculture producers are accelerating the adoption of evidence-based climate adaptation approaches introduced by the project. Increased knowledge, information and communication technologies, and access to high-quality information are enabling these groups to integrate adaptation and mitigation strategies from the planning stage to actual production.
“The most significant achievement of the project is the convergence of aquaculture, atmospheric and meteorological sciences. This will not only help tilapia farmers win the race against climate change, but also contribute to poverty alleviation and food security. The learning, technology applications, policies and knowledge products generated by this collaboration have great potential to be replicated to other aquaculture enterprises in the country and the Asia-Pacific region,” said Miao Weimin, Aquaculture Officer at FAO’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific.
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