CẦN THƠ — Applying advanced technologies in aquaculture is critical for the sector to cope with impacts of climate change and improve competitiveness, experts said.

Đinh Xuân Lập, deputy director of the International Collaborating Centre for Aquaculture and Fisheries Sustainability, said at a conference held in Cần Thơ City on Wednesday that the application of technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution was being hastened in agriculture and aquaculture sectors in a number of countries and territories such as Israel, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Thailand, as well as European countries.

The advanced technologies created significant production value, such as labour liberalisation, minimising risks and reducing costs while enabling product traceability and adaptation to climate change impact, Lập said.

In Việt Nam, the research and application of advanced technologies have been promoted in recent years and brought initial benefits for the aquaculture sector which have now contributed more than 60 per cent to the country’s total fisheries output and created more than one million jobs.

The aquaculture sector of Việt Nam was, however, faced with challenges such as diseases, climate change impact, high production costs and difficulty in tracing products’ origins, according to Phạm Anh Tuấn, deputy director of the Việt Nam Fisheries Society.

“Applying technologies of the Revolution 4.0 will be important for the aquaculture sector to create breakthroughs and improve competitiveness for Vietnamese fisheries products,” Tuấn said.

Tuấn added farmers and technology developers should co-operate with each other to promote the application of advanced technologies to improve aquaculture efficiency.

The conference held by the European Union-funded project of sustainable and equitable shrimp production and value chain development in Việt Nam aimed to share information about the most advanced technologies in aquaculture and promote their applications to improve the efficiency of aquaculture production.

An Giang promotes hi-tech aquaculture

People’s Committee in the southern province of An Giang will issue incentive policies for firms investing in hi-tech aquaculture to improve productivity and protect the environment, according to its recent sustainable aquaculture development plan to 2020 with a vision to 2025.

The plan aims to improve the quality of fisheries products to meet the requirements of both domestic and foreign markets and develop the value chain together with consumption markets.

The province targets that aquaculture would contribute more than 30 per cent to GDP of the agriculture sector. — VNS