The Development of Aquaculture in Western China: Current Situation and Future

Aquaculture in Western China has played a positive role in aquatic products supply and rural industrial revitalization. The present situation, existing problems, potential, and future are analyzed by exploring statistical data, existing policies and literature. The main conclusion are: the rapid growing of aquaculture in west China has led to its rising status in the country. Fish farming with high percentage and aquaculture in pond and reservoir, are dominant. The structure among provinces varies greatly. Aquaculture productivities in southwest China are higher than national average level. The rice-fish integrated aquaculture in southwest China develop stably. Facility aquaculture are expanding. The major problems are unbalanced development, unreasonable industrial structure, fishermen’s low income, low aquaculture productivity in northwest China and rice field aquaculture, poor capacity on technology promotion and practitioner qualities, limited developing space, difficulties in promoting advanced aquaculture methods, and insufficient management skills. The development potentials lie in the following aspects: good water quality, rich fish resources, large unused water surfaces, probability on improving productivity and expanding rice-fish integrated aquaculture, and large market potential. In future, the quality and efficiency of large-scale fish aquaculture will be promoted, and the proportion of local famous and excellent varieties, such as cold-water fish, will increase. Aquaculture will all be transformed into ecological farming. The scales of ecological facility aquaculture and rice-fish integrated aquaculture will be further enhanced. In order to speed up the process, it is suggested to learn from successful experiences, introduce high-quality enterprises and talents by improving the business environment, integrate ecological brands construction with e-commerce development, enhance the level of public management, increase policy support and advanced demonstration projects, and promote the optimization of industrial structure.