The Malaysian government will spend RM 342 million (US$105 million) under the Ninth Malaysia Plan (9MP) to develop 49 aquaculture zones nationwide, according to Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Datuk Mustapa Mohamed on Saturday (July 5, 2008).

Malaysia had developed 11 of the zones on 6,695 hectares nationwide with two of the zones located in Selangor, Mustapa said. One of the two Selangor zones is a tiger prawn-breeding project in Sg Nipah.

Mustapa said the original investment sum was RM 195 million (US$60 million) but the government topped it up with an additional RM 147 million (US$45 million) due to the recent food security policy.

The aquaculture zones would help participants of the projects to increase their income and expand food supply for the domestic and export markets, Mustapa said, adding that the ministry aims to harvest 662,000 tonnes of aquaculture products worth RM 6.9 billion (US$2.1 billion) in 2010, four times the current production.

The Sg Nipah project started with the release of prawn fry into five ponds in January 2008 and the Fisheries Department expects each pond to produce 2 tonnes of tiger prawns.