With this growth rate, three crops per year are possible. Even so, we are just at the beginning. Fish breeding is 50 years behind livestock and 100 years behind plant breeding, but it shows the same great potential. Tilapia is also finding more and more of a market acceptance in the developed world, where it is starting to replace fish such as cod because of collapsed wild stocks. Research has demonstrated that giant clams can be cultivated.
Giant clams are also valuable for aquarium markets and for their shells, which have many uses.
The largest species, Tridacna gigas , was deemed most suitable for farming near coastal villages. Experiments are in progress to further reduce the cost of juvenile clams, to increase growth and survival at village sites and to find better ways to transport giant clams alive to distant markets. Similar experiments on five other species of giant clam are now in progress. Integrated Agriculture Most arable land and most freshwater on our planet are needed for agriculture. The program demonstrates that farmers can produce fish and use the water to produce vegetables and other crops.