BEIJING: With the aim of promoting rice-fish and rice-shrimp farming in Cambodia, a research team from Shanghai Ocean University wrapped up an investigative and training visit to the Southeast Asian country recently, seeking to contribute to the construction of the Fish and Rice Corridor between the two countries.
According to a China-Cambodia joint communique released in September, the two nations will expedite the building of the corridor to increase their bilateral agri-trade volume, with cooperation on the agricultural sector focusing on developing aquaculture, agro-processing, ecological agriculture, modern machinery, new agricultural technology and human resources.
“Cambodia boasts an existing rice cultivation area of 3.3 million hectares. However, the area used for freshwater pond aquaculture in the country is only 1,350 hectares, which has led to the insufficient supply and high market prices of aquatic products such as giant freshwater prawn and tilapia,” said Wu Xugan, leader of the research team and a professor at the School of Aquatic and Life Sciences at Shanghai Ocean University. “There is huge potential in the two nations’ cooperation in the building of the Fish and Rice Corridor.”
During the team’s stay in Cambodia from April 21 to 27, it visited several regions, carried out in-depth investigations and held promotional events and technical training courses in a bid to learn more about local conditions and help farmers improve their rice-fish farming skills.
From 2021 to 2023, the team carried out a project in Cambodia focusing on technical cooperation on rice-fish farming and poverty reduction through aquaculture in the Lancang-Mekong River region.
The team’s recent visit was related to that project, which was renewed this year and has been expanded to include efforts to cultivate local talent.
Working with a technical team led by Thay Somony, director of the Department of Aquaculture Development at the Fishery Administration of Cambodia’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the research team visited three rice-shrimp farming demonstration bases it helped build in Takeo province, and provided training courses to over 30 farmers on site. –The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
