
KienGiang (VNS/VNA) - An island commune in the southerncoastal province of Kien Giang is expanding marineaquaculture in combination with tourism and other services to further theincomes of local farmers.
Hon Nghe commune in the province's Kien Luong district aims to have 1,000ha of marine aquaculture nextyear.
Located about 15 km off themainland, the island commune has 619 households that live mostly onfishing and marine aquaculture.
In 2010, households began to use floating cages to breed fishfry caught in the area's clean sea waters, and one yearlater, as many as 53 households were breeding marine fish in 150 floating cages.
Today, 189 households breed marine fish in a total of 1,089 floating cages, according to the commune'sPeople’s Committee. Most of the farmed marine fish are grouper and cobia.
Huynh VanChieu, who breeds grouper in 44 floatingcages in Bai Nam Hamlet, earns a profit of more than 8billion VND (345,500 USD) fromeach harvest.
Groupers, which are normally harvested after slightlymore than one year of breeding, are mostly exported to Hong Kong.
Traders from other provinces regularly come to the commune tobuy farmed marine fish.
However, the area faces small-scale farming and a lackof sophisticated farming techniques. Only 50 households are engagedin large-scale breeding and have stable outlets.
“We need more capital and better farmingtechniques,” Chieu said, adding thatmore support would help farmers switch from fishing to aquaculture.
Nguyen Huu Thanh,secretary of the commune Party Committee and chairman of its People’sCommittee, said the commune regularly organises training courses onaquaculture techniques for local farmers, includinghow to build floating cages.
The commune has also asked credit organisations toprovide loans to households that breed marine fish, whilethe People’s Committee has urged companies to guarantee outlets forproducts of aquaculture cooperatives.
Two environmental monitoring systems that inspectthe quality of sea water in marine aquaculture areas have also been set up.Some of the floating cages have been rearranged./.