Eleven of these zones had been developed on 6,695 hectares nationwide and two of them were in Selangor, Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Datuk Mustapa Mohamed said.
According to Bernama he added that one of the two was a cockle breeding project along the coast from Kuala Selangor to Sabak Bernam and the other a tiger prawn breeding project in Sg Nipah.
Bernama said that initially, the government allocated RM195 million for the development of the aquaculture zones but added on RM147 million following the recent introduction of the food security policy, he told reporters after officiating the harvest of tiger prawns at the Sg Nipah project here.
Mustapa said he was satisfied with the performance of the seven tiger prawn entrepreneurs in Sg Nipah as they showed commitment and that three more entrepreneurs would be brought in to the project, Bernama reports.
He said the government had spent RM2.5 million to provide the infrastructure for the project which covered 28 hectares and had 23 ponds of 0.5 hectares each.
The ministry has targeted a harvest of 662,000 tonnes of aquaculture products valued at RM6.9 billion in 2010, four times the current production, he said.
Government to Develop 49 Aquaculture Zones
MALAYSIA - The Malaysian government is to develop 49 aquaculture industrial zones nationwide under the Ninth Malaysia Plan (9MP) at a cost of RM342 million.