The Benguet provincial office of the Philippine Statistics Authority will conduct the third quarterly Aquaculture Survey (QAqS) and Municipal lnland Fisheries Survey (QIMFS) this September.
Aquaculture remains an important source of fish food amid depleting marine resources. This sector is often the target beneficiary of programs and policies because it operates under controlled conditions. The QAqS is a quarterly survey that generates estimates of volume and value of production that covers operations involving all forms of raising and culturing fish and other fishery species in fishpond, fish cages, rice fish culture, small farm reservoirs, and fish pens.
The QIMFS on the other hand, is a survey on volume and price of fish by species, caught by households engaged in inland fishing. It also refers to catching of fish, crustaceans, mollusks and all other aquatic animals and plants in inland water like lakes, rivers, dams, and marshes using simple gears and fishing boats some of which are non-motorized with a capacity of less than three gross tons, or fishing not requiring the use of fishing boats.
The general objective of the survey is to come up with volume and value of production for the reference quarter. Specifically, it aims to: generate provincial and regional commercial and municipal fisheries production and value estimates by species; generate provincial and regional aquaculture production and value estimates by aquafarm type/ environment and by species; to generate provincial and regional area and yield estimates by aquafarm type/ environment and by species; and, generate total fisheries production and value estimates by province by sub-sector.
Fisheries outputs form part of the estimation for the performance of agriculture and eventually, of the national accounts for the generation of Gross Value Added, Gross National Product and Gross Domestic Product.
Data generated from the activity will serve as basis for researchers and policy formulation.
The surveys were reviewed and cleared for the conduct under the Statistical Survey Review and Clearance System, a mechanism being implemented by the PSA.
In Section 26 of RA 10625 or the law that reorganized the Philippine statistical system, information gathered from the respondent is confidential and cannot be used for taxation, investigation or enforcement procedure, nor will be published except in the form of statistical summaries in which no reference to any individual person shall appear. PSA asks for the cooperation of barangay officials and the farmer-producers to support and participate in the survey. Statistical researchers will visit the household to interview. – Press release