PANGAGEN: TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE PANGASIUS BREEDING, A SELECTION APPROACH

The project aims at bringing new solutions to the threats the catfish aquaculture sector starts to face in the Mekong Delta. The dangers are two-fold: first, climatic changes and dams building in the upper part of the river create and will continue to generate significant changes in the environmental conditions for the herds located in the lower part of the basin, such as an increase of the water salinity and a reduction in the supply of fish meat. Second, the arrival on the market of new actors (such as China producers) will necessitate improvements in the overall production process to remain competitive. Both of these challenges can be targeted by obtaining better animals: animals that are resilient to the changes in their environmental conditions, that are fast-growing while still providing quality products, that are resistant to the most frequent pathogens. Our proposal is to target the generation of such animals using a selection experiment and to organize the local sector to obtain an optimal diffusion of the experiment results, so that the research could be beneficial for all the actors of the chain, including the smallholders, who are the most threatened by the coming changes. Another objective is to reinforce the scientific support to the catfish value chain with Can Tho University's young staff members obtaining doctorates in the fields in line with the sustainable improvement of the species broodstock.