Fisheries ministry on Wednesday has officially opened the loan scheme to harvest sea cucumbers in Laamu Atoll.
The government had launched a special program to harvest sea cucumber in three islands in Laamu Atoll in August last year.
The project jointly with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) had offered special training to locals and had also provided loans for interest locals in two islands.
According to the ministry, applications are to be submitted between July 2 and 12. The fisheries ministry had announced that loans will be granted to 150 individuals from the three specified islands in Laamu atoll.
Fisheries ministry had also launched a pilot project to introduce commercial fishing of diamond-back squid in the archipelago.
The ministry with the assistance of JICA, has looked into the commercial exploitation of that resource with a high demand in Japan.
Authorities had fished 11 diamond-back squids under the project.
