China is the world’s top fishing nation and has vast resources available in her own waters. Bohai Sea, the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea and the South China Sea span from sub-tropical to temperate zones with a total sea waters of 1.03 million square nautical miles, of which 431,000 square nautical miles are continental shelves (within 200 meters deep). The total fishing ground area is about 818,000 square nautical miles
2006-09-10 23:05:42
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answer #1
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answered by sunshine25 7
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World's Largest Fish Industry Is Big Catch for Indiana Farmers
In a state where corn and soybean fields cover the landscape along with an occasional fisherman at a roadside pond, it's hard to imagine that Indiana farmers have a connection to the world's largest aquaculture producer, China.
Through their checkoff program, Indiana's soybean farmers provide funds to help Chinese fish farmers learn how to produce their fish more efficiently and profitably by using U.S. soybean meal as the mainstay of the fish diet. Why? Because China is the world's largest aquaculture producer, the industry is rapidly growing, and the Chinese need U.S. soybean meal to meet their country's demand for fish.
Changing Century-Old Tradition
Chinese farmers invented aquaculture 3000 years ago by raising fish on a diet of grass and livestock manure from pigs and chickens. The system is simple: the farmer would put 6-7 varieties of fish in a pond, feed the fish manure mixed with grass for 6 to 8 hours a day and finally, harvest the fish for market.
"You can grow fish this way, but it's not very efficient," says Mike Cremer, aquaculture technical director for the American Soybean Association (ASA), based in Beijing, China. "Feeding fish soybean meal produces higher quality fish faster and with greater economic and environmental benefits to a farmer."
Making A Big Splash
Since 1993, ASA has been teaching Chinese fish farmers and government officials how to improve their fish production by switching from their traditional multi-species, food-based system to a single-species, feed-based system using U.S. dehulled soybean meal as the main protein ingredient. ASA staff works directly with fish producers and feed manufacturers in China demonstrating low-polluting, feed-based pond or cage technologies through teaching and field trials. For the past three years, funding for these activities has come from Indiana soybean farmers through the Indiana Soybean Board (ISB).
Environmentally and economically, the soy-based fish diet has big advantages. "When you feed fish a manure-based diet, most of the food falls to the bottom of the pond. With dehulled soybean meal pellets, the food floats on the top. Consequently, the fish get more food and there's less waste lying on the bottom of the pond," explains Cremer.
He says it's a challenge to get the farmers to make the switch initially because soy-based feeds are more expensive. "Once you show them the production results and their return on investment, the farmers see the advantage," says Cremer. The soy-based system results in less labor, better water quality, less fish disease and higher quality fish that is demanded by today's Chinese consumer.
ASA has been so successful at helping develop China's aquaculture industry that the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture National Fisheries Extension Center has adopted the ASA aquaculture program as the official way to raise fish in the country.
A Big Catch for U.S. Soybean Farmers
Today, more than 50% of China's fish farms have switched to soy-based feed and within five years that number will increase to 75%. The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture estimates that production of high quality, soy-based aquafeeds increased from zero in 1990 to approximately 110 million bushels in 1998. If the rapid expansion of the China's aquaculture industry continues at the current rate of over 15% per year, the demand for soybean meal is expected to reach 257 million bushels by 2005. Chinese officials admit that although they are the world's fourth largest producer of soybeans, they can't grow enough to meet the demands of their expanding livestock industry.
"That's more beans than we produce in all of Indiana," says Jack Reed, a Salem, Indiana soybean farmer and chairman of international marketing committee for ISB. Reed adds, "We're talking about just one segment of China's agriculture (aquaculture) that could consume more than 9% of the total soybean crop we produce in the U.S."
"This is a huge market for U.S. dehulled soybean meal and that's why we are using some of our Indiana soybean checkoff funds to help China's farmers," says Reed. "Right now, the only place the Chinese can get high-quality dehulled soybean meal is directly from the U.S. or by buying U.S. beans and making the meal in the newer U.S./China joint venture feed mills in China," adds Reed.
According to Reed, the end result is that while establishing U.S. dehulled soybean meal as the feed of choice, U.S. soybean farmers are positioning themselves as the supplier who can provide service and technical advice to help China's fish industry grow. "That's something our major competitor, Brazil, doesn't offer," Reed says with a smile. "Brazil doesn't sell dehulled soybean meal and they don't offer the technical expertise like we do in the U.S. Let's face it, the main reason China's aquaculture is growing so rapidly is because U.S. soybean farmers have provided the funds to help develop their industry into a modern-day system. That's what international soybean marketing is all about," concludes Reed.
2006-09-11 06:09:28
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answer #5
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answered by bridgetmaria 2
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