The Government of Indonesia assisted by the United Nations Development Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is engaged in a project whose main purpose is to develop improved methods for the expansion of shrimp and fish production on a national scale. To establish data collection programmes; to provide requisite training. As part of the project operation, FAO assigned Dr W.T. Yang, a Fishery Biologist (Shrimp Culture), from May 1975 to June 1976 and from February 1977 to June 1978, with the following terms of reference:
“Under the direction of the Project Manager, to be responsible for organizing and conducting experimental shrimp culture, including hatchery production of postlarvae with an aim to elaborate improved techniques for commercial production.”
Toward the end of his term he served as Officer-in-Charge from February to June 1978.
Indonesia has a very long tradition in fishculture, in both freshwater as well as brackishwater. Historically the “tambak”, the brackishwater fish pond, has been known since 1400 A.D. There is nearly 390 000 ha available area for potential coastal aquaculture (Djajadiredja and Purnomo, 1974). At present, nearly 185 000 ha are utilized as brackishwater fish ponds, with an annual production of 66 756 t in 1974, mainly milkfish and some penaeid shrimps.
Annually about 8 500–12 500 tons of shrimps are produced from the tambaks, averaging a production of 50–70 kg (ranging 5–200 kg) per ha. The six major tambak species are Penaeus monodon, P. merguiensis, P. indicus, Metapenaeus monoceros, M. brevicornis and M. burkenroadi. Of these commercially valuable species, P. monodon (udan windu), is the only species which is being intentionally cultured using fry collected from coastal waters. Fry of P. monodon are collected along with milkfish fry. It has been reported that during 1970, about 3 950 000 postlarvae of P. monodon were collected for stocking ponds while recent unofficial estimation was reported to be 16.5 million. The rest of the five penaeid shrimps are cultivated by existing methods of natural stocking of postlarvae immigrating into the milkfish ponds, through tidal water inflow.
In recent years the demand for and cost of shrimps has increased both in the domestic as well as foreign markets. In most of the Southeast Asian countries, shrimps have become an important export commodity, earning valuable foreign exchange for the governments. Indonesia exported 24 152 t of shrimps valued 78.2 million US dollars in 1975. Increasing fish and shrimp production in brackishwater ponds has therefore become a priority activity, and to harness the vast areas for productive fish and shrimp culture, improved technology of seed production, and farming practices have become limiting.
