High-tech intensive shrimp farming

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High-tech shrimp farming model is replicated in Nhon Trach District. Photo: Phan Anh 

Shrimp farmers are increasingly investing in capital and applying high technology in production to reduce disease risks and increase productivity and quality of shrimps.

High profit

Mr. Nguyen Truong Dai, a shrimp farmer in Vinh Thanh commune (Nhon Trach District), is a pioneer in the locality in changing from traditional earthen pond farming to high-tech application of canvas lining and net cover for rearing ponds. Applying this technology, Dai must choose clean and quality seeds; comply with the process of input water treatment; use beneficial bacteria that compete with harmful ones; especially, the pond is designed so that the waste and harmful contaminants concentrate on the low-lying areas at the bottom of the pond; farmers are required to clean daily and suck the dirt out of the pond, etc. Dai compared: "High-tech shrimp farming produces many times more profit than that of traditional farming as the yield per harvest is 3-4 times higher than that of earthen ponds. Disease risk is also better controlled so this model can generate profits of billions of dong/ year”.

With the same opinion, Mr. Huynh Van Ba, a shrimp farmer in Phu Huu commune (Nhon Trach District) said: “I have to spend money to invest new technology in shrimp farming because the old method has born almost no profits, some crops has not brought any profit because the risk of disease is too great. With the new technology, productivity and quality of farmed shrimp are better and disease risk is reduced”.

According to farmers, by applying high technology in intensive shrimp farming, farmers can continuously cultivate 3-4 crops/ year, not only do 2 crops as traditional farming; stocking density is many times thicker than that of the traditional farming. Accordingly, the average yield of high-tech households reached 15 tons/ ha/ crop with average revenue of 2 billion VND/ ha.

Reducing risks​

High-tech shrimp farming model is replicated in Nhon Trach District. Photo: Phan Anh 

Brackish water shrimp farming is currently at the top of the profits but also faces many risks because the water environment for shrimp ponds is increasingly being adversely affected by domestic and industrial waste. Therefore, the quality of water is increasingly not guaranteed. Accordingly, epidemics on aquatic products, especially against white shrimp and black tiger shrimp, are also becoming more and more complex and difficult to handle. This is also the main reason for which the aquaculture has still developed unsustainably for the past time.

Mr. Truong Van Than, a shrimp farmer in Phu Huu commune, said that investing in white shrimp and black tiger shrimp farming in traditional earthen ponds now has many potential risks. In the past, many households raced to invest in shrimp ponds because of noticing high profit. Many of them made a profit, but there were many cases when the shrimp "destroy" their home and land. The reason is that those new farming farmers were inexperienced in farming, as the disease on shrimps occurred more and more, many became empty-handed due to this practice.

In order to develop aquaculture in a sustainable way, localities are encouraging to expand the intensive shrimp farming model in net houses according to the process of ponds lined with canvas in the bottom and covered with net. Nhon Trach District is the locality with the largest brackish water shrimp farming area in the province. The district now has over 1.9 tho​usand hectares of water surface for aquaculture. In particular, there are more than 1.5 thousand hectares of brackish water aquaculture. According to the People's Committee of Nhon Trach District, the district has now developed 66 hectares with 31 households in Phuoc An and Vinh Thanh communes to apply intensive shrimp farming in net houses and lining canvas in the bottom of ponds. The local authorities are actively supporting replication of this high-tech shrimp model.

Phan Anh​