After more than 20 years in the IT industry, Malcolm Ong turned his hand full time to aquaculture. Today, the founder of The Fish Farmer owns 4 sea-based farms, operating on traditional methods, producing about 1,000 tonnes of fish a year - milk fish, grey mullet, red snapper, barramundi (Asian sea bass), golden pomfret and sea perch.
But he faces a challenge: How to double production sustainably? To do this he has joined hands with scientists under the Singapore Food Agency's AquaPolis R&D programme. The goal for Malcolm is to develop superior fingerlings with faster growth rates, lower mortality from common fish diseases, and higher Omega-3 content.
00:00 Intro
00:54 Fish cage-farming on the open sea
01:40 Using AI tech with traditional farming methods
02:18 How an IT engineer got into fish farming
03:23 Old-school mussels farm
04:20 Setting up his first fish farm
04:53 A tech solution to prevent mass fish deaths
06:33 AquaPolis R&D programme
07:28 Selective breeding of snappers
09:09 Getting local retailers' support
10:00 Buy local to support farmers
Singapore imports over 90 per cent of its food, but has set a “30 by 30” goal to ramp up the capability and capacity of the agri-food industry to sustainably produce 30% of its nutritional needs by 2030. Aquaculture is a priority in this. This video was made in partnership with the Singapore Food Agency
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