From pharmacy to ulang raising

Pharmacist Floresma Alivia Dacuycuy runs a drugstore called Flores de Mayo, but she was lured into raising tilapia and freshwater shrimp or ulang.

In 1999, she constructed two fishponds in their backyard with a free flowing source that was tapped with the assistance of the provincial government of Isabela and the DA’s Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources. She was called Aling Baby by her neighbors.

To learn more on ulang production she attended a four-day seminar and hands-on training at the National Freshwater Fisheries Technology Center (DA-BFAR). Designed by NNFT chief Dr. Melchor Tayamen, the hatchery consisted of six circular rearing tanks, eight rearing aquaria, four artemia hatching jars, and laboratory equipment like microscope, beakers, glass slides and hand refractometer.

The innovative Aling Baby has formulated her own feeds for her ulang: mixed coconut meat, overripe or discarded carrots and papaya, boiled fish entrails, tilapia fingerlings. She also makes use of old plastic bottles and softdrinks as ulang’s breeding shelters. To save on molluscicides or chemicals to control snails she encouraged farm workers and their children to gather kuhol which she buys at P3 per kilo.

For her accomplishments, she was declared among the winners in July 2005 as one of the "Outstanding Women in Fisheries and Aquatic Resources." Another award came her way in October 2005 when the DA and Food Agriculture and Food Organization (FAO) of the United Nations recognized her as one of the "Outstanding Rural Women Achievers.