FLOATING VILLAGES: Rearing fish in cages under rafts has become increasingly common in a number of countries, but perhaps nowhere is this occupation as advantageous as in Vietnam with its maze of rivers and streams criss-crossing the country from north to south, from west to east, totalling perhaps millions of kilometres in length.When it comes to raising fish in cages, AnGiang province in the Mekong River delta has always taken the lead. It has 40 to 50 years' experience, has the biggest number of cages and produces more caged fish than any other locality in the country. It is no exaggeration to say that the fishing rafts on AnGiang rivers are true floating villages.If you ever come to AnGiang, do not fail to visit Cồn Tiên where you can fully appreciate the poetic nature of such villages. They are made of large rafts of either bamboo or timber depending on the capabilities of the fish raisers. In most cases, they are timber rafts measuring about 12 by 5 metres and 3 metres in height. After five months -- the usual time for the fish to complete their life cycle -- the family of the fish raiser anchors the raft on some part of the Tiền, Hậu, or Châu Đốc rivers or any major canals. At present, most districts in AnGiang such as Long Xuyên, Châu Đốc, Chợ Mới, Phú Tân, Phú Châu and Châu Phú raise caged fish, but this occupation is still essentially practised in Cồn Tiên village, Châu Đốc township Cồn Tiên has the advantage of being located near the supply centre for young fish and fish meal (the Châu Đốc market) and also on a fast-flowing river. Cồn Tiên actually accounts for almost half of all the fish rafts of AnGiang provincẹThe two main fish species raised in cages in AnGiang are the Ba Sa and Chai which take their food from the water surface. Their food consists chiefly of rice bran mixed with vegetables such as pumpkin.A raft for rearing 50,000 Ba Sa fish needs about 3,500 kilograms of food, but for rearing 10,000 to 20,000 Chai, only 00 to 800 kilos of food are required. One raft needs only three workhands. The first harvest from a raft averages 12 tonnes of Ba Sa and three tonnes of he or Chai fish.+Net profit may account for 25 % - 30 % of the proceeds. But not everything has been plain sailing for the fish raisers of AnGiang. At its peak year, AnGiang had 1,200 rafts. In 1971, there were only 662 and the number slumped to 225 in 1980. A rapid recovery began in 1984, when the local government decreed new policies on prices and on the rearing and marketing of caged fish. Early in 1990, the AnGiang Aquatic Produce Import- Export Company loaned fish raisers three billion dong. It also found markets for caged fish in Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore. Subsequently, the number of rafts rose to 715 and fish output to 14,000 tonnes, double the figures for 1989. The expansion also provided jobs for 4,000 people. One of the biggest problems in caged fish raising in AnGiang is the supply of young fish, since most of them come from natural breeding. Production of all other fish still depends on natural breeding. Research and experimentation in this direction with regard to fish such as Ba Sa, Chai and Bong are going on at the provincial sciences committee. In recent years, caged fish raising has also been undertaken by other provinces such as Hà Tây, Hà Bắc and Vĩnh Phú in the north and Hậu Giang, Đồng Tháp and Long An in the south. In Hà Tây province west of Hà Nội, 200 families in the district of Ba Vì, Dan Phương and Mỹ Đức keep more than 200 fish cages along the Đà and Red Rivers. Ba Vì district alone has 165 cages, mainly raising Indian carp. They yield from two to three tonnes of fish per cage. On average, the fish raisers get from 16 to 24 million dong in income and about seven million in net profit. Riverside villages such as Thuan My, Tay Dang, Co Do and Minh Châu are gradually shifting from fishing in the river to raising fish in cages. The administration in Ba Vì has made a uniform loan of one million dong to every family of fish raisers. Experts are providing technical assistance to make fish spawn in the rivers, thus reducing production costs. Many families of farmers are also raising fish as a secondary occupation besides cultivation. One thousand families of farmers in Ba Vì district have registered for caged fish raising