Snakeskin gourami breeding - a new way

Snakeskin gourami lives in fresh and brackish water and is widely bred in Cuu Long Delta. In Binh Duong, snakeskin gourami breeding faces many difficulties, owing to disadvantages of natural conditions. However, some farmers in Tam Lap commune, Phu Giao district manage to find out an effective way of breeding this kind of fish. And, they enjoy a significant income. Success from the first batch Phung Van Thuc, vice head of Tam Lap commune Club for breeding fresh water fish is the first person finding out a new way of breeding snakeskin gourami and gets successes on the model. Over the past 2 years, Thuc enjoys remarkable results of breeding snakeskin gourami. Over 10 years ago, Thuc started digging ponds to raise fishes after seeing many people become millionaires on raising perch fish. However, he suffered failures, owing to shortage of experience. In 2013, he managed to learn about model of breeding snakeskin gourami in Cuu Long Delta. After that, he started experimentally breeding on an area of 1ha of surface water at his garden. "By techniques and efforts, I get a big success right from the first batch", Thuc said. With this deed, after only 8 months of breeding, Thuc harvested more than 36 tons of fish. With the current price ranging from VND55,000 to 70,000/kg on the market, Thuc reaps nearly VND1bil. At present, some farmer households in Tam Lap commune follow this model and enjoy successes. Farmers need capital Realizing Thuc's effective model, many local farmers learn about his techniques and launch the model widely. There are now 4 out of 18 members of the Tam Lap commune Club for breeding fresh water fish launching this model. Overall, the model of breeding snakeskin gourami brings positive efficiency. However, developing widely this model remains difficulties. Bui Van Quen, chairman of Phu Giao district Farmers' Society said that the biggest difficulty is the shortage of capital for investment though the local division of tech-economy and the district Center for Agricultural Promotion hold training classes on aquaculture. Many local farmer households can not expand and upgrade their aquaculture models, owing to shortage of capital. Therefore, aside from upgrading the club into cooperatives, the district Farmers' Society hopes to enjoy support from the provincial Cooperative Alliance and Bank for Social Policies and commercial banks. According to snakeskin gourami breeders in Tam Lap commune, the model of breeding snakeskin gourami is based mainly on unprompted activity ad lacks of planning and investment capital, so farmers are in dire need of assistance from the State.                                                                                               Reported by T.Huynh - Translated by A.C