The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development plans to review
investment projects to draw up a plan to develop the fresh-water
aquaculture sector through 2012.
It has asked the
Directorate of Fisheries to work with the ministry's Department of
Planning to conduct the review and disburse capital to build facilities
for egg cultivation and main aquatic species production.
In southern provinces, they will focus on creating regulations on how to
choose tra fish eggs from the tra fish provided by the Research
Institute for Aquaculture No 2.
This is being done in order to reach a target of nearly 80 percent of or high-quality tra fish by 2015.
Cultivating tra fish under Vietnamese Good Agricultural Practices
(VietGap) standards will also be carried out in the provinces of Ben
Tre, Dong Thap, and An Giang.
The ministry said the
institute should continue to conduct research on new technology for seed
production and cultivation of other freshwater fish, including sturgeon
and giant barbs.
The south-central and Tay Nguyen (
Central Highlands ) provinces should focus on planning cultivation and
egg production areas for freshwater fish.
They should also make plans to preserve and develop their native fish species.
The Directorate of Fisheries has been asked to guide the construction
of freshwater aquaculture production facilities in these provinces to
carry out tra and tilapia fishes cultivation under VietGap standards for
export.
According to the ministry, the provinces have not
taken advantage of water from 22 reservoirs to use for irrigation and
hydroelectric plants to develop freshwater aquaculture.
They have also yet to define which fish will be cultivated and make specific plans for export.
In the first nine months of this year, the area for freshwater
aquaculture in the south-central and Central Highlands provinces was
36,000ha, accounting for 75 percent of total aquaculture cultivation
areas.
The output was 18,459 tonnes, accounting for 35 percent of total aquaculture output.
The total area of freshwater aquaculture in the southern provinces was
nearly 98,600ha with the output of 882,500 tonnes, accounting for 74
percent the region's total output of aquaculture cultivation. /.