March 26, 2024

 

Kiên Giang, Vietnam, to make aquaculture production more environment-friendly

 

 

The southern province of Kiên Giang, Vietnam, will restructure its aquaculture and fishing sectors to protect the environment.

 

Lê Hữu Toàn, director of the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said large, concentrated aquaculture areas using advanced and environment-friendly breeding techniques will be developed. The province will also strengthen the protection of aquatic species near shore and step up actions against illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) activities, he said.

 

Kiên Giang has large fishing grounds of around 63,000sq km and 8,212 fishing boats, including 3,700 with a length of at least 15m for off-shore fishing. The province aims to reduce the number of near-shore fishing boats to protect aquatic resources.

 

Additionally, Kiên Giang has released seeds of aquatic species into rivers and lakes, and banned the catch of some of them during their reproduction season in recent years.

 

The province aims to produce 800,000 tonnes from aquaculture and fishing this year, including 435,000 tonnes from the latter. The output in the first two months of 2024 was 95,670 tonnes, or 12% of the year's target, according to the agriculture department.

 

Kiên Giang has 148,000 hectares of aquaculture farms that raise shrimp, fishes and bivalve mollusks. So far, its aquaculture output in the first two months was 27,200 tonnes, an increase of 2%. Shrimp accounted for 10,250 tonnes.

 

The province breeds shrimp under various models such as traditional and industrial farming and shrimp-rice farming.

 

Furthermore, Kiên Giang is increasing the breeding of marine fish and other aquatic species in floating cages to capitalise on its potential for marine aquaculture given its coastline of 200km, more than 100 river mouths and 143 islands. Its goal is to create marine aquaculture on an industrial scale while also protecting the environment.

 

At 3,837, the province has the largest number of floating cages in the Mekong Delta. It encourages farmers to increase the use of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) floating cages as they are more resistant to strong waves and winds than traditional wooden ones.

 

Kiên Giang targets to have 4,000 floating cages, both HDPE and traditional wooden ones, set up by this year, with an annual output of 4,400 tonnes, according to the agriculture department.

 

To meet the targets, the department plans to adopt advanced breeding techniques and implement agricultural extension models from now till 2030. It will also prioritise high-tech breeding models that use HDPE floating cages and modern breeding facilities and solar power.

 

The department will also train farmers in preventing fish diseases and understanding breeding regulations.

 

Lê Hữu Toàn said the province encourages breeders to develop relationships between various stakeholders in marine aquaculture, breed high-value species and use industrial food to feed them.

 

"The province is also increasingly calling on companies to invest in floating cages, supply brood stock for farmers, buy their output and process and export their products,"  Toàn said.

— VNS