In recent years, fish farming has strongly developed in Thac Ba Reservoir in Yen Binh District, Yen Bai Province, helping the locals escape poverty and develop the economy in a sustainable direction.

Thac Ba Reservoir has been known as one of the three largest artificial lakes in Vietnam. It is the place where the Thac Ba Hydroelectric Power Plant, the first and biggest in Vietnam at that time, was built. Apart from the hydroelectric use, Thac Ba Reservoir has favourable conditions for the development of raising fish.

During a trip to the area, we followed a working group from Yen Binh District led by La Tuan Hung, Head of the district’s Agricultural and Rural Development Department to visit the model of fish farming in the reservoir.

Hung said that after Thac Ba Reservoir was evaluated to have a favourable environment for raising fish, the district immediately carried out the programme on aquaculture support under the decision of Yen Bai Province’s People Committee.

Under this, the locals were initially given 40 fish cages by the district and then another 50 fish cages by the province, worth three million dong each. So far, the total number of fish cages has reached over 400 fish cages in the whole area of Thac Ba Reservoir, including 100 fish cages in the area of Thac Ba Town.

We visited the fish farming area of the family of Tran Thi Nga who has the largest scale with 120 cages in a total area of 541ha. Hong, a cadre from the working group, said: “Since the district defines fish farming in the reservoir as a direction for developing the economy, we must regularly inspect the fish raising area and instruct the locals with techniques of raising fish to ensure productivity and eco-environment in the reservoir”.

Here, the locals raise different species of fish, such as tilapia, grass carp, Asian redtail catfish and Ca nheo (Ictalurus punctatus) at a depth of 12-20m. However, the most popular species is grass carp. Like its name, this species of fish only eats grass and cassava leaves so the cost is low while it brings high economic value.

According to Chien, Deputy Chairman of Vinh Kien Commune’s People Committee, during the years after national liberation (1975) the locals sometimes caught about 40 tonnes of natural fish in the lake.

“I still remember at that time we only used a pickax to catch fish around the reservoir and small moulds in the lake. The schools of fish often settled near the reservoir bank. Some Hypophthalmichthys weighed 9-10kg,” Chien said.

From a small fish raising area, the locals have now expanded the production scale and from each crop they earn a profit of about hundreds of millions dong. Visiting Thac Ba Reservoir on boat, one is surely surprised by the local fish-raising scale.

Many enterprises have invested and developed the areas which specialize in raising some species of fish such as sturgeon. Phuong Bac Sturgeon Joint-Stock Company is one of them. The company’s sturgeon raising area consists of 60 cages, each with a diameter of 13m and worth 100 million dong. Each cage raises 2,000-3,000 fish.

Binh, who is responsible for raising fish in the company, said: “Sturgeon is a cold water species so we must raise them at a depth of 25-27m. Regretfully, if you visited us one or two months ago, I could have showed you mother and father fish, 40-50kg.”

Binh also said that previously the company had to import breeding sturgeon from Russia at high price, about 15,000 USD/kg of spawns so the capital investment was great. However, since the company has its own breeding farm, the number of the imported spawns has considerably decreased. The breeding fish are sold for 60,000 VND/each. Sturgeon is often harvested in the two months of April and May when it is getting hot. Winter is the best season for the growth of this species.

Thanks to support from the authority together with the great efforts of locals, fish raising has strongly developed in the area, helping the locals become well-off and protecting the aquatic resources and ecological environment of the area.

Source: VNP