QUANG BINH – People in coastal communes of the Le Thuy district raise snakehead fish in sand and canvas ponds, earning hundreds of billions of dong per crop.
From 8 am, the farm of Mr. Tran Kim Phi (47 years old, Ngu Thuy Bac commune, Le Thuy district) is busy with trucks coming in and out. Dozens of workers are sorting, weighing, and importing fish to send to the central and northern provinces.
Fish are brought up from the sand tank, and poured into baskets to be sorted by size. Type one weighs over 0.7 kg, selling 48,000-50,000 VND/kg. Every day, Mr. Phi sells 5-7 tons of fish, an average of 2,000 tons of commercial snakehead fish a year, including fish from the farm and purchased from people in two villages, Bac Hoa and Tan Hai. ($1=24,000 VND)
Mr. Phi said, 10 years ago, people in the plains successfully dug ponds to raise snakehead fish, while in Ngu Thuy commune with vast white sand, they could not grow or raise anything. He researched and dug a pond in the sand, tried to raise snakehead fish, and learned for himself. Strong snakehead fish should quickly adapt to the white sand area.
Each 300 m2 lake Mr. Phi stocked 30,000 fingerlings. In the early years, 10,000 fingerlings yielded three tons of commercial fish. Later, because he accumulated experience, closed farming process, applied techniques, the output increased to 4-5 tons of commercial fish. Each fish crop is about half a year, the initial cost of each pond is about 20-30 million VND, each ton of fish makes 10 million VND.
In recent years, Mr. Phi has raised snakehead fish in a cement pond, both saving space, easy to control the amount of fish, the amount of food, the disease, and spending less money to improve the lake after each crop compared to raising fish. snake on the sand lake.
Up to now, Mr. Phi’s family farm is more than one hectare and sells fish all year round. He is also proactive in providing seed for many farming households around the area, and at the same time consuming the output for his people.
Similarly, Mr. Le Quang Minh (61 years old, residing in Ngu Thuy commune) has been raising snakehead fish for 15 years. Currently, he has 7 fish ponds with a total area of 1,600 m2, including 3 sand pools of 400 m2 each, 4 tarpaulin lakes of 50 m2 each. Minh only releases one crop of fish each year. In the winter months, he does not stock due to harsh weather, storms, low temperatures, and ineffective farming.
Two weeks ago, Mr. Minh released 60,000 seed to raise the new crop. After 15 years of raising snakehead fish, Mr. Minh has learned from experience: In the new stage of stocking, pay attention to water sources, supplement vitamins, and yeast… The first 3 months are most susceptible to diseases, then larger fish have better resistance. . “The initial cost of a 400-square-meter aquarium is about 30 million VND, not too expensive, only costing 300-350 million VND for food,” he said.
Mr. Minh calculates the average price of fish at 45,000 VND/kg and is a profitable farmer. His family both feed the fish with flour, and feed on fish and shrimp that take advantage of coastal seafood, so the quality of the fish is higher and the fish grows faster. Every year, his family sells 30 tons of fish with a profit of 300 million VND. Thanks to the snakehead fish pond, his family gradually became well off and built a spacious house.
Ngu Thuy and Ngu Thuy Bac are two flat communes, people fishing along the coast, low income, precarious due to weather dependence. Since 2010, after a few successful farming households, Ngu Thuy Bac commune has replicated the model. Up to now, the whole commune has nearly 200 families digging ponds to raise snakehead fish. In which, dozens of households invest in developing 5-6 ponds with an area of 100-300 m2 each.
Mr. Tran Kim Trung, Chairman of the People’s Committee of Ngu Thuy Bac Commune, said that digging a pond to raise snakehead fish is a great success for the commune when changing occupations for fishermen. The initial investment cost is low, farming techniques are easy to apply, and the output is stable, so raising snakehead fish gives a much higher income than inshore fishing. This profession also takes advantage of the white sand area that has long been abandoned.
“Every ton of fish gives a profit of 10 million dongs, helping many households to have a stable life and become quite rich,” Trung said. The annual output of commercial snakehead fish of Ngu Thuy Bac is about 2,500 tons, bringing the commune a revenue of 250 billion VND.
( According to vnexpress )