Aiming for sustainable marine farming: Taking advantage

Promoting advantages

Khanh Hoa has a coastline of 385 km with 200 large and small islands and many lagoons and bays, such as Van Phong Bay, Cam Ranh Bay, Nha Trang Bay, and Nha Phu Lagoon. This locality also concentrates many marine training and research facilities, such as Nha Trang University, Nha Trang Institute of Oceanography, and Research Institute for Aquaculture No. 3. The above-mentioned units conduct scientific research activities, transfer technology, proactively produce many new varieties, and complete many advanced marine farming processes with high productivity to transfer to fishermen.

"Khanh Hoa is one of the major aquatic seed production localities in the Central region. The produced aquatic seeds are diverse, including many special seafood species with high economic value, such as giant tiger prawn, whiteleg shrimp, sweet snail, marine fish, geoduck, crab, and sea cucumber," said Mr. Nguyen Duy Quang, Director of the Khanh Hoa Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

From those advantages, Khanh Hoa province has set the goal of "strongly developing the ocean economy in the direction of aquaculture, exploiting, and processing seafood, especially marine farming applying advanced and environmentally friendly technology." In particular, the development and implementation of a pilot project on developing high-tech marine farming in Khanh Hoa is identified as one of the key tasks to develop the ocean economy.

Helping fishermen reach out to the sea

To create opportunities for fishermen to reach out to open seas, Khanh Hoa has issued a number of fisheries development policies, specifically Resolution No. 09/2018/NQ-HDND dated December 6, 2018 of the Provincial People's Council on "Amending and supplementing a number of articles of Resolution No. 26/2016/NQ-HDND dated December 13, 2016 of the Provincial People's Council on policies to support the development of agricultural production and rural services in Khanh Hoa province in the 2017-2020 period."

Of which, there are regulations on supporting and encouraging the development of cooperation and linkage in the production and consumption of agricultural products according to Decree No. 98/2018/ND-CP dated July 5, 2018 of the Government or Resolution No. 04/2020/NQ-HDND dated May 15, 2020 of the Provincial People's Council on "Regulating credit policies and budget capital levels to support businesses investing in agriculture and rural areas according to Decree No. 57/2018/ND-CP in Khanh Hoa province."

"The Khanh Hoa Provincial People's Committee has issued regulations on credit support policies (support level, interest rate support period, interest rate support limit, etc.) for businesses with investment projects in agriculture and rural areas. The provincial budget will support commercial loan rates after the project is completed," said Mr. Nguyen Duy Quang, Director of the Khanh Hoa Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

According to Mr. Quang, to effectively implement the fisheries development strategy to 2030, with a vision to 2045, and to help people limit risks in marine aquaculture, Khanh Hoa has developed a resolution to support funding for accident insurance purchases for workers working on aquaculture cages and on vehicles serving marine aquaculture activities. Khanh Hoa also supports funding to buy natural disaster risk insurance for aquatic animals farmed at sea in Khanh Hoa province.

According to Dr. Vo Van Nha, Director of the Research Institute for Aquaculture No. 3, the advantage of current marine farming comes from Resolution 36-NQ/TW of the Central Government on the strategy for sustainable development of Vietnam's ocean economy to Decision 1664/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister approving the project on developing marine farming until 2030, with a vision to 2045, and the Action Plan of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in developing marine farming in Vietnam.

Many coastal localities, such as Quang Ninh, Hai Phong, Quang Ngai, Phu Yen, Khanh Hoa, Ninh Thuan, Binh Thuan, Ba Ria - Vung Tau, Ca Mau, and Kien Giang, have also issued action plans, concretizing Decision 1664/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister. Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan has determined that marine farming plays an "especially important" role in ocean economic development in order to make Vietnam a strong and rich country from the sea.

"Coastal localities need to take the above policies as an advantage to develop marine farming, thereby developing the ocean economy to bring marine farming in a sustainable direction," emphasized Dr. Vo Van Nha.