Raising sturgeon to supply the Ho Chi Minh City market, every year Mr. Vu Manh Cuong, Gung Re commune earns billions of dong, opening the prospect of developing cold-water fish in Di Linh district (Lam Dong province).
Taking us to visit his cold water fish farming model, Mr. Cuong said: This sturgeon farm was built and put into operation 3 years ago, he is the first farmer to develop cold-water fish. in Di Linh district.
The owner of the farm said that he has been involved in sturgeon farming since 2014 and once fell into a loss due to the impact of natural disasters. He said, many years ago, his aquarium in the area of Da Chais commune (Lac Duong) was about to enter the harvest season when it was destroyed by floods, causing a loss of several billion dong. To continue his career, he and his brother traveled to find a place to raise fish and finally chose land at the foot of the hill in Hang Hai village (Gung Re commune) to open a farm.
His farm consists of 14 commercial fish tanks, the construction cost of the fish farm is up to 2 billion VND. According to the farm owner, having clean water from Nuoc Mat stream is the ideal condition for growing sturgeon. The water here has high purity, the temperature is always in the range of 15-20 degrees Celsius.
Water is led from the stream to the tanks, from the upper tank to the lower tank, and then back to the stream. It is very important for the water to flow into the tank and then out again around the clock, because it not only helps the aquarium always have cool water, but also creates oxygen for the fish to grow and develop.
Studying at Nha Trang University of Fisheries, majoring in aquaculture, Mr. Cuong is fluent and grasps farming techniques; At the same time, in order to successfully raise fish without dying, he regularly checks and monitors the growth and development of the fish in each aquarium.
Mr. Cuong said that raising cold-water fish is more difficult than raising children. This fish named “noble” is very feisty, only lives in clean and dynamic water, the oxygen in the water must meet the allowable index, just one of the factors above changes, the fish will expose its belly, set up ignore it all.
When detecting a dirty tank, it must be cleaned immediately, if any fish in the tank are stunted, slow to grow or show abnormal symptoms, he will filter it out, move it to another tank and have its own care regimen.
Here, each lake is about 100 m2 wide and can raise about 2,000 commercial fish of 1.5-2 kg and 1,500 commercial fish of 5-10 kg. Fish raised for about 1 year can reach a weight of 1.8-2 kg each. Feed used for livestock is industrial bran for sturgeon and the feeding regime is maintained 4 times a day including morning, noon, afternoon and evening.
Fortunately, since raising to the present time, Cuong’s aquariums have not had any disease. Being fed with enough nutrition, living in a clean environment , the sturgeon group keeps growing day by day. In order to always have sturgeon for sale on the market, Mr. Cuong raises his head in a pillow-like manner, every 3-4 months, he imports fingerlings to raise once.
Currently, each year Mr. Cuong’s farm supplies the Ho Chi Minh City market with nearly 20 tons of commercial fish. With the selling price fluctuating at 200,000 – 250,000 VND/kg, for each fish crop, the farm owner earns a profit of 1.2 billion VND. In addition, he also creates jobs for 4 local workers with an income of 5-6 million VND/person/month.($1=24,000 VND)
“In the coming time, I will continue to expand sturgeon farming locally and aim for a revenue of 10 billion dong/year. Thereby, creating more jobs for workers and sustainable poverty reduction,” said Mr. Cuong. .
Mr. Le Van Thanh – Vice Chairman of Gung Re Commune People’s Committee said that Mr. Vu Manh Cuong was the first to develop cold-water fish in the locality. In addition to bringing billions of dollars in annual income for Mr. Cuong’s family, this model also helps the locality to diversify agricultural products.
According to Mr. Thanh, the potential for sturgeon farming in the area is great because of the advantage of abundant spring water and cold water all year round.
If this resource can be taken advantage of, this will be a new way to generate income for people. However, due to financial difficulties, people have not been able to replicate the cold-water fish farming model here. The locality urgently needs more businesses interested in investing to promote this existing potential.
According to Lam Dong Sub-Department of Livestock, Veterinary and Fisheries, Lam Dong currently has guidelines and policies to attract investors to develop cold-water fish in the province. The locality has nearly 30 units, organizations and individuals farming cold-water fish with a total area of over 400 hectares.
Individuals and businesses are applying science and technology to production and many model farms have been formed. Models such as VietGAP, GlobalGAP, sturgeon in flowing water have high productivity and quality. Currently, the product is not enough to supply the domestic market.
According to Lam Dong Newspaper