Initial steps to restore fish seed production after storms and floods

Due to the impact of storm No. 3 in September 2024, the fish breeding ponds of Lao Cai Agricultural Seed Center in Quang Kim commune, Bat Xat district suffered great damage, the water in the ponds was polluted, the walls and embankments of the ponds collapsed... Millions of fish fry and conservation fish of Quang Kim Aquatic Seed Farm were swept away by floodwaters. After 6 months, production activities have resumed but still face many difficulties. Equipment and facilities serving production are degraded and damaged. In particular, production materials and purebred parent fish pairs are no longer available.

Quang Kim aquaculture hatchery has been initially restored after the flood to produce breeds for the market.

Mr. Vu Dinh Hoa, Head of Quang Kim Aquatic Breeding Farm ( Lao Cai Agricultural Breeding Center) said: It is easier to fix on the shore than in the pond. In this area, every family is affected by floods, so it is difficult to hire local people to restore. Therefore, the unit mainly mobilizes the Center's staff and a small number of outside workers to reactivate the ponds.

According to Mr. Hoa, all the dredging and disinfection of the ponds must be done manually, because excavators cannot go down to the bottom of the ponds. On the other hand, water must be used to suck up the thin mud, which will be faster than letting the mud dry out, making it difficult to clean.

Tilapia, carp, and grass carp are the breeds that the center has initially produced.

After restoring 32 fish ponds, the Center immediately started production. However, the problem arose: how to produce fish when there are no more pairs of parent fish? According to Mr. Vu Dinh Hoa, to solve this problem, the farm is restructuring the herd, and has collected 200 parent carp and many pairs of parent tilapia, catfish, and catfish for breeding, serving the needs of aquaculture development in the region.

Since the beginning of 2025, the Center has focused on raising 3 fish breeds including grass carp, tilapia, and common carp to serve the aquaculture development needs of local people in the spring crop. As a result, about 500,000 fish fry have been produced and delivered to customers, equal to 1/5 of the amount of fry supplied to the market compared to the same period in 2024. "The Center is optimizing the production capacity of the farm because it believes that the Northern market is "running out" of fry after the flood, focusing on producing high-value aquatic breeds," said Mr. Vu Dinh Hoa.

Based on the research and recommendations of aquaculture engineers, Lao Cai Agricultural Seed Center restored the fish breeding farm by producing high-value specialty fish such as: Catfish, silver carp... Because the farm area is small and there is little water, traditional fish farming will not be as effective as specialty fish. "The price of traditional fish is low, the price of bran is high, so I think we have to find a new direction to stabilize the farm's operations soon. For example, tilapia is only about 35 thousand VND/kg, while specialty fish can be sold for 500 - 700 thousand VND/kg", said Mr. Vu Dinh Hoa.

However, at present, in addition to difficulties in capital, the source of specialty fish is also not available. The staff of the Aquaculture Hatchery must collect fish from sources in Ha Giang, Tuyen Quang, Son La..., then classify them for rearing in ponds, and at the same time obtain sources for crossbreeding. Regarding the capacity of the staff, Quang Kim Aquaculture Hatchery currently has 3 specialized engineers with over 10 years of experience working in this field, so it can carry out the plan to produce specialty fish.

The center has begun research on specialty fish.

The successful production of specialty fish breeds will help Quang Kim Aquatic Hatchery recover and develop soon.

Mr. Ha Van Quang, Director of Lao Cai Agricultural Seed Center, said that the current difficulty is that the infrastructure has not been invested in accordance with the new requirements of research and seed production. Some infrastructure has degraded and needs to be upgraded, repaired, and replaced, for example, warehouses, fences at affiliated farms have collapsed, water systems... Another difficulty is that the investment capital for seed production is creating pressure on the scale and area of ​​production, while the unit is not allowed to borrow capital from any source of the bank.

In the immediate future, Lao Cai Agricultural Seed Center will maintain care and select parent carp and reserve carp; care for and domesticate some new aquatic species of economic value to serve research work, diversify aquatic species to contribute to restructuring the agricultural sector.

Source: https://baolaocai.vn/buoc-dau-khoi-phuc-san-xuat-ca-giong-sau-bao-lu-post400003.html