Experts visit Cambodia to promote rice-fish farming

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."