Aquaculture as the future

Scientia est potentia !!

When the Prime Minister of Malaysia made agriculture his vision, a lot of people scoffed and laughed. Compared to the previous PM, Dr.M whom outlined information technology and mechanized industry as his pet project, agriculture seems a step backward in the layman's mind.

Most people confuse agriculture with farming. The very definition of agriculture is as follows

Agriculture is the process of producing food, feed, fiber and other desired products by the cultivation of certain plants and the raising of domesticated animals (livestock). The practice of agriculture is also known as farming, while scientists, inventors and others devoted to improving farming methods and implements are also said to be engaged in agriculture. - Wikipedia

Let me set the boundaries, early. I am primary a biologist dealing with aquatic life. I do not have any knowledge in agriculture per say but more in aquaculture. However, aquaculture is conveniently classified as agriculture in some instances hence my use of the term, agriculture.

Out of all the definitions provided, i find this most relevant to the message i'm trying to convey.

Aquaculture: the science, art, and business of cultivating marine or freshwater food fish or shellfish, such as oysters, clams, salmon, and trout, under controlled conditions.

Science, art and business. Aquaculture is no longer about digging a hole, filling it up with water and fish and hope they survive till the next harvest. It involves science; the sheer amount of research you encounter when you google prawn would take you days to read. Art, because there is a certain finesse to handling aquatic organisms, intuitions and experience which can't be explained by science. Aquaculture is all about profit. A successful farm incorporates a business plan that spells out your total expenditure, possible profits/loss in a stipulated time frame.

Woe betides those that omit anyone of these three factors. In fact, let me express my disappointment of the countless prawn farmers out there that still rely on the dig a pond theory. Not only you are digging yourself a financial black-hole but you're destroying the environment. It is a known fact among reputable biologist, your prawn pond would only provide profits the first 2-3 years of operation. The pond would take an additional 5 years to recover from the pollutants .The prawns you harvest are also of horrible quality, if you know what goes into the prawn you would shun eating them as i did.

Malaysians embrace information technology, gadgets galore and high tech furnishing and entertainment unit but balk in spending money on the same technology in aquaculture.

I want to change that, change our mindset of agriculture and aquaculture of the 70s and bring them up to par to today's standard. I would attempt to highlight some technological advancement, discuss aquaculture techniques that would hopefully help anyone out there listening.

Re vera, cara mea, mea nil refert

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enjoy and watch out for the empty glasses...