Marine fish are bred in floating cages in Kien Giang province’s Phu Quoc city. (Photo: VNA)The province’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development is working withlocalities to monitor weather conditions and inform farmers promptly aboutproper cultivation schedules and farming techniques that help prevent cropdisease.
Le Huu Toan, deputy director of the department, said the province, which is thecountry's top rice producer, has already sown two rice crops, with high-qualityvarieties accounting for 80 percent of the total area. It aims to have annualpaddy output of 4 million tonnes this year, up 1.3 percent against the planthis year.
In animal husbandry, by the end of the year the province will breed mostly pigs(more than 261,250), as well as oxen, cows, buffaloes and hundreds of thousandsof poultry to supply to markets.
By 2025, biosafety breeding methods will be used at all large-scale pig farms,80 percent of medium-scale pig farms, and half of small-scale pig farms.
In seafood production, the province this year targets 510,000 tonnes from thesea and 293,000 tonnes from aquaculture. It aims to harvest 136,000 tonnes ofbrackish-water shrimp this year using breeding models like industrial farming,extensive farming, advanced extensive farming, and shrimp – rice farming.
To prevent disease outbreaks, it is strictly managing schedules forbrackish-water shrimp. It is also expanding industrial shrimp models to producea large output for export.
Marine aquaculture
Toan, deputy director of the department, said under the province's seafooddevelopment plan, brackish-water and marine aquaculture will be expanded. Witha coastline of more than 200km and 143 large and small islands, Kien Giang hasthe largest number of floating cages for marine aquaculture in the delta.
By year end, it aims to have 5,500 floating cages for breeding marine fish,250ha for pearl oysters and 25,560ha for other bivalve mollusk species.
Concentrated marine fish breeding areas will be developed in island communeslike Kien Luong district’s Hon Nghe commune, Kien Hai district’s Lai Son communeand Ha Tien city’s Tien Hai commune.
The communes breed marine-fish species such as cobia, grouper, snapper, yellowfin pomfret and seabass. Bivalve mollusk species such as blood cockle, greenmussel, yellow clam and ark clam will be bred mostly in mudflats along thecoast in Kien Luong, Hon Dat, An Bien and An Minh districts.
Pearl oysters are bred in Phu Quoc city.
To develop marine aquaculture, the province is teaching farmers breedingtechniques for marine fish in floating cages and bivalve mollusk species.Farmers are also encouraged to have identification codes for their legallyregistered floating cages.
Seafood catch
Kien Giang, which has one of the largest fishing boat fleets in the delta, willrestructure its fishing industry based on natural seafood resources. Theprovince’s sea area has natural resources of about 145,000 tonnes, with anallowable catch of more than 100,000 tonnes.
Near-shore fishing activities will be reduced to protect natural seafoodresources, according to the department. Overfishing and destructive fishingactivities have reduced the amount of natural seafood in the sea.
Currently, about 9,880 boats are used for fishing activities, including 9,433fishing boats and 448 logistics boats for offshore fishing. But by 2025, theprovince will eliminate 2,550 fishing boats, mostly near-shore boats, and willhelp fishermen find other jobs.
To ensure they are following fishing regulations, the activities of fishingboats are watched by vessel monitoring systems (VMS) that are required onboats.
Doan Dinh Tranh, deputy commissar of the province's Border Guard Command, said:“The Border Guard Command continues to inspect the installing of VMS in fishingboats and to manage VMS.”
The guard command inspects fishing boats going in and out of fishing ports andonly allows boats that meet all legal requirements. It strictly penalisesfishing boats that violate legal regulations on fishing activities, especiallyboats that do not install a VMS or turn off the VMS when they are fishing atsea, according to the officer./.
VNA
