Tropentag, September 20 - 22, 2017 in Bonn "Future Agriculture: Social-ecological transitions and bio-cultural shifts"

Economic and Environmental Comparison between Shrimp Farming Systems in the Buffer Zone of Xuanthuy National Park, Vietnam

¹Liège University, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, Dept. of Econ. and Rural Dev., Belgium
²Vietnam National University of Agriculture, Department of Marketing, Vietnam

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate and compare economic and environmental perspectives of two shrimp systems in Xuan Thuy National Park (Vietnam). The primary data was collected in 2016 through interviewing 30 intensive shrimp farmers and 33 extensive shrimp farmers in the protected area. Economic indicators reveal that the intensive production incures total costs of 451×10⁶ Dong ha^-1 which is 18 times higher compared to extensive farming (24×10⁶ Dong ha^-1). Among costs of intensive culture, feeds including pellet feeds, supplements and some antibiotics are the dominant items comprising 58% (260×10⁶ Dong ha^-1), followed by white leg shrimp spawns and electricity (12% and 7% respectively). In the extensive culture, family labour, giant tiger shrimp and crab spawns are the important input costs (respectively 28% and 27%). Intensive ponds require huge capital for feeds, hired labour, spawns, electricity, gasoline, sand and lime, while extensive farms use much less pellet feeds, gasoline, lime, and no electricity and sand. Intensive shrimp farming brings higher net profit per hectare of land (233×10⁶ Dong) than extensive farms do (32×10⁶ Dong). Nevertheless, some economic efficiency indicators illustrate that the return on working capital of extensive farms is 5 times as much as of intensive ones.
From an environmental perspective, extensive shrimp farms apply polyculture which produces diverse aquatic animal products including giant tiger prawns, greasybock shrimps, crabs, miscellaneous fishes and seaweed. This system generally shows more environmental responsibility than monoculture of intensive system. Higher stocking density in intensive shrimp ponds (78.4 heads m^-2) require more food inputs than extensive farms (7.2 heads m^-2) and also produce more waste per unit of land. Application of antibiotics and other chemicals in intensive shrimp culture might create more side-effects for shrimps and environment compared to extensive production. The higher frequency in water exchange of intensive shrimp culture might discharge more chemically and biologically contaminated water to the rivers than extensive farms. Based on these insights recommendations for a more sustainable shrimp production in the buffer zone will be developed.

Keywords: Economics, environment, shrimp production, Vietnam, Xuan Thuy National Park

Contact Address: Nhung Nguyen, Liège University, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, Dept. of Econ. and Rural Dev., Gembloux, 5030 Namur, Belgium, e-mail: thuytrangnhunggmail.com