Solomon Islands welcomes NZ's help with aquaculture

10:15 am on 8 March 2018

The director of the Solomon Islands Association of Rural Training Centres says it's grateful a new app is being developed in New Zealand to improve the aquaculture industry.

Fish being sold at a Solomon Islands food market.

Fish being sold at a Solomon Islands food market. Photo: RNZ

The organisation, which offers non-formal education for youth, is working with farmers in Malaita province where tilapia fish are farmed in inland ponds.

The plan is to introduce a fish farming course with the help of the app being devloped by the Waikato Institute of Technology.

The association's director Billy Mae said the app could be a game changer in far flung regions as it will improve returns from tilapia.

"I'm from Malaita, one of the bigger provinces in the country and I learned from some of our coastal shorelines that there is no fish. Secondly it creates an opportunity for the people living inland to be able to access knowledge so that they will be able to have fish farming over there and be able to sustain their livelihoods."

The three year app project is being funded by New Zealand's aid programme.

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