The government in Vanuatu is extending help to prawn farmers on Maewo island as part of a new development policy.
The agriculture minister Matai Seremaiah said a tractor equipped with a digger is being shipped to the island to help farmers dig ponds.
Speaking in Naone village on Maewo, the minister said the government was determined to focus on specific projects which suit the natural environment.
He assured the villagers that aquaculture technicians are on standby to help start farms according to a report by RNZ.
Mr Seremaiah said former governments tried to spread economic development to almost all 83 inhabited islands and failed.
On Maewo, prawn farming was being encouraged after finding that prawns can be harvested three times from the same ponds in one year while in rivers, prawns take two years to mature.
Prawns sell in Port Vila for $US35 a kilogramme.