Skretting, Nutreco’s global aquafeed division, is to support the participation of two private sector participants in the 3rd Regional Grouper Hatchery Production Training Course for the Asia-Pacific Marine Finfish Aquaculture Network, that will be held from April 18 - May 8, 2005.
NACA invites interested private sector participants in the Asia-Pacific region to submit an application for the scholarships. The scholarships include all costs of the training, including training fee, accommodation and meals, and reasonable costs of transport between home base and
The two scholarships will be awarded based on the following criteria:
1. The person should be from the private sector, actively working in aquaculture.
2. He or she should ideally have hand-on practical experience in brackishwater or marine aquaculture
3. He or she should be able to communicate and read reasonably well in English
4. He or she should come from a developing country in the Asia-Pacific region.
All private sector participants interested in these Skretting scholarships should send in a short resume and current company background to grouper@eneca.org (message marked clearly: Skretting Scholarships) by the 25th March 2005 at the latest together with the registration form. The successful applications will be notified by the 31st March 2005.
The registration form and further information on the training course can be found at www.enaca.org/marinefish
In announcing this initiative, Mr Pedro Bueno, Director General of NACA, said “We welcome this new partnership with Skretting, which brings together a major commercial fish feed supplier to collaborate with NACA in the development of this important and increasingly active marine finfish network. Skretting’s support will be targeted towards extending outcomes of research, including some of the ongoing work sponsored by ACIAR, to a much wider range of industry users and building capacity of industry to adopt new techniques and farming practices”.
“We are delighted to join this initiative”, said Craig Foster, Managing Director of Skretting’s Australasian operations. “The valuable extension work in transferring knowledge and skills will help ensure the sustainable development of aquaculture in our region”.
The cooperation will support development of the marine finfish aquaculture web site and the regular marine fish newsletters and magazines, and also provide annual sponsorship of two people from developing countries in the Asia-Pacific region to attend a grouper hatchery training course. The hatchery training course has been an outstanding success in transferring grouper hatchery technology to various countries in the region, including
Mr Bueno further emphasized the significance of the sponsorship by saying that ”Government agency sponsorship (by APEC and ACIAR) allowed the development of the network, but NACA recognizes that for such networks to be sustainable in the longer term, they must move away from government funding and become self-supporting. It is also important to make sure the benefits of the research investment lead to positive industry developments. NACA is grateful to Skretting for their vision and support, and we hope that other industry partners will follow suit and join this important regional partnership”.
The course
The training course will be hosted by
The training course will provide participants the opportunity to observe grouper hatchery and grow out farming practices in east Java and
Farmers, hatchery operators and technicians will benefit most from this practical hands-on course. Those who are interested to invest in grouper hatcheries, but have little or no aquaculture background (either practical or theoretical) will also find the practical course a good basis for their future investment decisions.
