New plans set for aquaculture

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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 breeding 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 per cent 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 the 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 per cent of total aquaculture cultivation areas.

The output was 18,459 tonnes, accounting for 35 per cent 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 per cent the region's total output of aquaculture cultivation.