Breeding center for freshwater fish starts construction in Nansha

The construction site of the breeding center for freshwater fish in Nansha district. [Photo by Li Xiatong/gznsnews.com.cn]

Construction work on a freshwater fish breeding center began in Guangzhou's Nansha district on Jan 8, the first project of its kind in the South China region to focus on the breeding of fish.

Covering a total area of around 8,000 mu (533.33 hectares), the breeding center will be built with an investment of more than 800 million yuan ($123.49 million).

The center is expected to be built as a first-level cluster for high-caliber talents in fisheries, a first-level area for breeding technologies, a first-level base for the production and protection of high-quality fish eggs, a national leading industrial base for the innovation of fisheries technologies, as well as a global leading modern seeding service center.

It is expected that, after it starts operation, the center will incubate 40 billion fish eggs each year, including those of grass carp, crucian carp, yellow-head catfish and large-mouth bass.

The annual income of the center will reach 700 million yuan and high-quality eggs from the center will be spread across a 1 million mu water area, increasing local farmers' income by 2 billion yuan annually.

"China currently lacks breeding centers for fish in South China and Nansha has excellent natural resources for setting up such a center as it has unique climate conditions and a warm water temperature," said Liu Shaojun, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and an outstanding expert in fish genetic breeding.

Breeding agricultural products - that can only be planted or bred in North China during the summer - in South China during the winter makes full use of the warm climate of South China, shortening the breeding cycle of new varieties by one third or one half.