Báo cáo Nghiên cứu khoa học The research priorities in fishery sector

1 THE RESEARCH PRIORITIES IN FISHERY SECTOR Lê Thanh Lưu Viện Nghiên cứu Nuôi trồng Thủy sản 1 Đình Bảng, Từ Sơn, Bắc Ninh 1. Present development of aquaculture and fishery sub-sectors In the last decade, the fishery sector has achieved significant achievements through increasing its production, export value and ensuring food security for Vietnamese people. However, each sub-sector has achieved it own results. For example, aquaculture sub-sector has increased its production four fold from 600,000 tons in 1999 to 2,4 million in 2008 through gradual increase of productivity, diversification of culture species and systems. An average productivity of carp culture in wide range of environments has increased from 900kg/ha per year to 2000kg, while tilapia culture has increased from 3-4 tons/ha/year to 20 tons/ha/year. The remarkable increase of productivity in Mekong catfish in ponds was from 30-40 tons/ha/year to 400-500tons/ha/year. In shrimp culture the significant increase of productivity also increased from 400-500 kg/crop to 2000-2500kg/crop in semi-intensive, and 1500- 2000 kg/crop to 4000-5000kg/crop in intensive culture. Figure 1 shows the rapid grow rate of aquaculture production and fishery export value in the period 1999-2008. Annual growth rate of aquaculture in the last decade was more than 10% while growth of fishery production was in the range of 1.0-1.5 %. To date, more than 40 species of fish, mollusc and crustacean species have been domesticated and used for aquaculture culture in freshwater, brackish water and marine environments. Although family scale aquaculture is still dominant, it has already shifted from the subsistence form to commercial model. Thus, from traditional integrated farm using internal inputs, aquaculture has developed to use off- farm inputs such as feeds, chemicals, energy etc. Different farming systems such as rice/fish-shrimp, intensive shrimp and Mekong catfish; cage culture and marine cage culture in open sea; etc. have been developed and introduced to aquaculture practices. New fishing technologies for off-shore exploitation including selected gear for pelagic species and tuna are the significant achievements in fishery sector. For the last two-three years, capture fishery productivity has increased 1.0-1.2 %, due to increase of volume catch from deep sea fishing grounds. It is estimated that more than 30% of total catch is coming from deep sea grounds. The new designs of fishing vessels and boats and equipped facilities to improve fishing efficiency and safety in deep sea fishing grounds have been done. 2 Total fisheries production period 1999‐2008 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Year Pr od uc ti on  (m ln  to nn e) 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 Ex po rt  tu rn ‐o ve r ( bi l.  U SD ) Total  fisheries production Capture production Aquaculture production Fisheries   export turn‐over  Figure 1. Fishery production and export value in 1999-2008 Source: 50 year of Fishery Sector Development. 2. Research priorities in aquaculture and fishery sector during period 1999-2010 In December 1999, the Prime Minister approved programme “aquaculture development for period 1999-2010”. Besides, the government of Vietnam issued a number of policies to support aquaculture with emphasis on seed production, expansion of aquaculture areas through use of the flood and non-profitable agriculture land. As a result, most of the research in aquaculture areas during the last decade focused mainly on the development of seed production and grow out technologies for all fish, mollusc and crustacean species. Researches on diversification of culture/farming systems were intensively carried out. Thus, productivity of the tradition systems such as integrated and polyculture, rice-cum- fish/shrimp systems were much enhanced while the new farming systems such as intensive shrimp, fish culture (Mekong catfish, tilapia, intensive shrimp, cage culture in reservoirs and open sea), raceway and recirculation systems have been developed and widely applied in aquaculture practices. Cultural systems for molluscs such pearl oyster, pacific oyster and lobster are also promoted and applied in practices. Meantime, some research on diseases and measures for prevention and treatment as well as environmental management were intensively carried for most economical species such as Mekong catfish, black tiger shrimp, lobster. 3 In the areas as feeds and feeding strategies for different aquatic animals in grow out period were also carried out. The breeding programmes for tilapia, Mekong catfish and some carp species are going on at the different research stations of the Research Institute for Aquaculture No 1, 2,& 3. Some research on the social and socio-economic issues to assess the impacts of aquaculture and fisheries to development of rural areas as well as market surveys and market chain analysis were carried out by a number of the research institutes. The surveys on resources of some economical important species, especially in deep sea were carried out. The fishing technologies for open sea pelagic and coral fish species were developed. Especially, long line technique for catching tuna and trapping facility to catch swimming crab are well developed and applied widely in fishing practices. 3. Impacts of the research and extension to the sector development at farm level. Shifting from the subsistence production systems into commercial systems is considered as a great change in the farmers/producer’s attitude and societies. The government policies supporting fishery sector combining with a number research projects and extension works had led to this change. Through the extension channels the research results are delivered to the farmers/users very frequently. The dissemination of the proven technologies could be done by the research, education institutions or themselves national or provincial extension centres. There are several ways to transfer these technologies to the farmers/ producers. It could be done through training, demonstration programmes, on-farm trials, workshops and seminars. The local and central media such as TV and radio are considered very effective means for dissemination of the extension messages to the end-users. Different research approaches such as laboratory and field experiments, desk analysis and on-farm trials were adopted to prove the developed technologies. Thus, many farmers/producers were directly or indirectly involving to the research and development projects and through this process, they were able to enhance their knowledge and experience that can help them to improve their production and economic efficiency. Today, farmers and producers in sector obtain not only the knowledge and experiences in technology but they also are interested in environmental and disease management, aware about safety and quality issues and learning about the market and market issues. 4. New development trends and the challenges Recently, the Prime Minister approved the strategy for fishery sector for period 2011- 2020. Some objectives of the strategy are: a) The fisheries sector is basically industrialized and modernized and will continue its comprehensive and sustainable development to become a large-scale commodity production sector having rational structure and appropriate production organization form 4 obtaining high productivity, quality, efficiency and recognized trade name that improve competitive capacity and enable to associate with the world market. b) Fishery economic actiivity should contribute 30-35% of GDP in the agro-forestry- fisheries sectors; the annual growth rate of fishery production should achieve from 8,0- 10%. Seafood export turnover should reach U.S. $ 8-9 billion. Total aquaculture production should reach 6.5 to 7.0 million tons, which accounts for 65-70% of the total fishery production. It is obvious, that to meet the strategy objectives in the next decade, there is a great need in improving whole sector. In this regard, science and technology are considered as the key factors that can contribute to gradual sector changes. New development is required not only to increase production but should have much more focus on product value. It is also not aiming to expand the scope or area of aquaculture and fishery grounds but it will more concentrate on intensification and product quality. More efforts should be given to sustainable development of the sector that can balance economic, environmental and social aspects. Thus, the new environmental, social and economic sound technologies have to be developed, promoted and introduced to aquaculture and fisheries practices. Bellows are some accounted challenges to the new development trends in the next decade: a) Although the existing technology and knowledge have contributed significantly to the development of the sector in the last decade, however, this development is still vulnerable, unsustainable (for example Mekong catfish, black tiger) as this development was still relying on the expansion of the aquaculture areas or expanding fishing grounds involved with large number of producers and using more resources. b) The increase of value and quality is behind increase production volume. c) Genetic quality of many aquatic animals including fish, shrimp and mollusks species has decreased due to inbreeding over several generations. Although breeding programmes are carried out, but are still very limited within very few species. d) The price of feeds for aquatic animals in aquaculture is very high and increasing time by time while nutrients and quality of feeds were uncontrolled. The use of fish meal, an important ingredient in feeds for many species creates negative opinions among the public sector. e) Environmental pollution and diseases are still making aquaculture vulnerable with unpredicted outputs. f) Economic efficiency of marine and deep sea fishing is not always clarified. g) Lack of the conservation technology of caught aquatic products. h) Lack of resources assessment of the economic important species and fishing technology 5 i) The climate changes and potential impacts on the fishery and aquaculture sub- sectors is obviously, however lack of experiences and capacity to assess the risks and identify measures to overcome these risks could be critical issues in the new decade. 5. Research priorities in the next period The development of the sector in the next decade should be able to maintain continuous increase of production by improving intensification level to ensure the food security and meet the demand of increasing population. On the other hand it should give more emphasis on quality and safety issues so that it will improve product value and competitive capacity in the domestic and international markets. While the existing techniques and technologies should be still improved to continue development, new social, economic and environmentally sound technologies and techniques have to be developed to reduce production costs by reducing inputs from feeds, energy, applied chemicals. Future research and development projects should also much focus on genetic quality improvement of the important species; rational use of resources such as water and energy (including for aquaculture and fishing vessels) in the climate change conditions; identification and development of new feed ingredients and development of economical and environmental friendly diets; better environmental management and disease prevention; development of new of fresh product preservation (for fishing vessels ), etc. Recent workshop on research priorities of fishery sector has identified the main species which are or will be important for aquaculture in the future (table 1). However, the workshop did not clearly indicate the research areas that required to be carried out in the future. This paragraph proposes the main research priorities of the sector for the period 2011-2020 based on the strategy objectives and analyses of the accounted challenges. The proposed directions represent as multi-disciplinary research programmes that can apply to any key species listed in the table 1. On the other hand, the interaction or cross- sector between proposed areas is seen as necessary for any future developed research projects. Some of proposed research directions are as: In seed production and genetic selection areas a) strengthening breeding programmes for the important and potential species to improve grow rate, disease resistant and feed digestion and nutrition absorption more suitable to the climate change conditions; b) further domestication of market demanded species for seed production to meets the needs of the producers; c) development of the biosecurity concepts for both hatcheries and grow out farms to ensure of getting specific pathogen free (SPF) seed and high quality products from grow out systems; d) preparation of SPF brood stock for production of SPF seed and certification on SPF and seed quality 6 In disease and environmental areas e) studies on immunological mechanism of aquatic animals and development of vaccine production technologies for wide use in aquaculture practice to stop application of antibiotics and reduce use of chemicals ; f) improvement of disease and environmental management combining with use of probiotics to maintain the balanced cultural ecology to ensure high quality and safety products; g) development of probiotic production technologies for different culture environments h) development and wide application of Vietnamese Good Aquaculture Practices (ViGAP ) or Vietnamese Best Management Practices (ViBMP) for the key species in different farming systems or different aquaculture sites. i) Certification aquaculture products on ViGAP, ViBMP or quality and safety food In area of quality, safety food j) development of criteria for quality and safety food of aquaculture product including indicators of cultural environments, quality seed, feed, chemical use and wide introduction to aquaculture practice In area of nutrition and feeding k) development environmental and economical diets balancing important nutrients : protein/ fat/ carbohydrate with other micronutrients and vitamins so that minimise use of fish protein and reduce wastes; l) development of the new food ingredients by using the biotechnology approaches to convert the agriculture wastes or primary products into high nutrient ingredients; In areas of new technology m) development and promotion of recirculation and bio security technologies to equip the hatcheries and grow out systems; n) development of the new farming systems with the new culture species to fit into climate change context; o) development of marine technologies for cage culture; In area of marine fisheries p) identification of the important species in deep sea and season available for fishing; q) improvement of the fishing technology and proper preservation technology for these species In area of bioactive compositions 7 r) Extraction of the biological active compositions from wasted of aquatic animals serving as material inputs for other industries Biotechnological tools should be used in each this research direction so the products of each research contain intellectual properties. In fact, without the biotechnological application, these research thrusts could not achieve the expected outputs. The detailed research projects in framework of these thrusts could be developed for any aquatic animals with is included in the list of priorities or potential for aquaculture in the future ( table 1). Table 1: Priority Programs within Priority Areas of Research and Development Opportunity (ARDOs) (First Draft)1 Priority ARDOs (In Order of Ranking on Return on Investment) Priority Programs (Ranking within ARDOs) ARDO Number 3 Crustaceans Tiger shrimp Lobsters Mud crabs Giant river prawns 5 Freshwater Fish Catfish Tilapia 1 Marine Finfish Grouper Snapper Cobia Barramundi Milk fish Rabbit fish Sea Bream 1 Recent workshop on research priority has identified the species which are or will be important for aquaculture in the future. 8 4 Mollusks Oyster Cockle Clam Abalone Sweet snail Scallop 6 Post-harvest Processing & Value Adding Immediate Post-harvest storage and reduce losses Safe and effective preservation technology Processed product diversification, value adding Use of waste material from processing industries 8 Resource Management & Conservation Fisheries resource survey and analysis Protection and Recovery of marine ecosystems Fisheries resource management policy Efficient fishing gear with low bi-catch Sea biology biodiversity 7 Extraction of Bioactive Compounds Chitosan extraction and use of active compounds Sea weed extraction and uses Extraction of active compounds from fisheries waste Extraction and use of toxin for medicinal use 2 Cold Water Fish Trout Sturgeon (Ukraine & China) White Fish Indigenous cold water fish 9 Mechanisation Fishing tools and capture technology 6. Research Capacity Present, 14 research institutions and universities involving to aquaculture and fisheries join together in the Vietnam Fishery & Aquaculture Institutional Network – ViFINET . These institutions and universities closely work together to develop aquaculture and fishery technologies and build human resource for the sector. Most of the scientists and professional staff working in these institutions have capacity to carry out the research in different areas for aquaculture and fisheries. Although significant improvement of the facilities and equipment occurred in the last decade in all institutions, there is a need for further strengthening the institutional capacity enabling them to work in the new research and technology development projects. However, inadequate funds for research and technology development in the universities are the main constraint. While, lack of high educated staff in the research institutions where funds for research and technology development are available is other 9 challenges. Thus close association and collaboration between research institutions and education universities are essential for development of sector aiming to fully mobilize all human and financial resources. References 1. MARD statistics. 2009 2. Strategy for Fishery sector 2011-2020 3. Fisheries Research Priorities 2007-2012; Priority Setting Workshop, Nha Trang, March 2007