Fish farming is now expanding in the mountainous Lam Dong Province after pilot projects to breed rainbow trout and sturgeon in Vietnam achieved robust results last year.
The Central Highlands province of Lam Dong is the second in Vietnam to breed rain-bow trout and sturgeon after Lao Cai.
Situated 1,500 meters above sea level amongst primeval forests and temperate waters, the breeding areas in the province look conducive to producing hundreds of thousands of fish per year.
In April 2006, the rainbow trout trial project – with investment from the Lam Dong Department of Agriculture and Rural Development – raised 20,000 young fish in a Lam Dong hamlet.
The pilot project was run by Quang Hiep Fish Test-raising and Research Station under the Institute of Aquaculture, about 55 km from the city of Da Lat.
It reported that each 12-month-old rainbow trout (Onchorynchus Mykis) weighed 1.2 – 1.5 kilo-grams on average; that each hectare could yield up to 30 tons of fish; and that the survival rate for the young trout was 76.8 percent.
