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Typology of shrimp farming in Bac

Lieu Province, Mekong Delta, using
multivariate statistics
Olivier Joffre

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Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 132 (2009) 153–159

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/agee

Typology of shrimp farming in Bac Lieu Province, Mekong Delta, using

multivariate statistics
Olivier M. Joffre a,*, Roel H. Bosma b
a
c/o Policy, Economics and Social Sciences Discipline, WorldFish Center, Jalan Batu Maung, Batu Maung, 11960 Bayan Lepas, Penang, Malaysia
b
Aquaculture & Fisheries Group, Dep. Animal Sciences, Wageningen University, The Netherlands

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Article history: This study aims to update the typology of shrimp farms in a province of the Mekong Delta’s coastal area.
Received 26 October 2008 We analyzed technical and economic characteristics of 170 farms using factor and cluster analysis on the
Received in revised form 18 March 2009 different variables collected during the survey. This allowed us to characterize four different shrimp
Accepted 25 March 2009
production systems: intensive commercial and intensive family farms, and the more extensive brackish
water polyculture and rice–shrimp farms. The systems differed in their level of intensification,
Keywords: diversification and origin of labor. Labor efficiency was higher in intensive than in extensive farms.
Vietnam
The difference in technical practice affected the farm economy and specifically its operational monetary
Aquaculture
cost which was 25–45 times higher in intensive commercial farms than in brackish water polyculture and
Shrimp
Disease rice–shrimp farms, respectively. The intensive commercial farms were significantly less affected by virus
Typology outbreak than the extensive brackish water polyculture farms. This last shrimp production system
presented a very low shrimp yield but a higher capital use efficiency than intensive commercial farms.
Rice–shrimp farms, which are located in a specific agro-ecological environment, presented average
sustainability characteristics and an average disease occurrence. Results show that technological
investments can reduce the vulnerability to disease outbreak and thus reduce the risk usually associated
with shrimp farming.
ß 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction production of the nation. In 2005, export revenue from the fishery
sector reached 2.65 billion USD. Of this, 1.3 billion USD was
The development of shrimp culture was a main factor in the generated by the shrimp sector (MOFI, 2005). However, the shrimp
transformation of Asian coastal areas with a shrimp production’s sector is not stable and prone to disease outbreak; on average 20–
annual growth rate of 17% between 1970 and 2000. In the late 80s, 25% of the farmers experience crop failure in Vietnam every year
early 90s, Vietnamese farmers started shrimp culture based on the (Sinh, 2004).
natural recruitment of the post-larvae (PLs) that came in with the The present study assessed the heterogeneity of earthen pond
tide. Following the example of Central Vietnam, and pushed by systems found in the coastal area of the Mekong Delta. Within this
companies producing inputs (pellets, brood-stock, drugs, etc.), dynamic environment, few studies have recently analyzed the
shrimp farmers in the Mekong Delta started to stock tiger shrimp diversity of shrimp production systems. Aquaculture is driven by
(Penaeus monodon) in their ponds. Shrimp culture expanded national and international markets and pushed by technological
throughout the area in the mid-nineties and the pond surface grew innovations from a very active shrimp industry. Analysis of shrimp
from approximately 90,000 ha in 1991 to almost 430,000 ha in producing farms is important to define development and research
2003 (Vo, 2003). strategies. Michielsens et al. (2002) based their typology of the
The high economic return associated with shrimp culture Asian carp farming systems on resource use efficiency. Using
generated the development of commercial shrimp farms and the multivariate analysis Kobrich et al. (2003) studied farming systems
transformation of traditional rice based farming systems. The main in Chile and Pakistan and Stevenson et al. (2006) described a
rice producing area in Vietnam is the Mekong Delta, covering about typology of coastal aquaculture systems in the Philippines. The
80–85% of the total cultured area with 70–75% of the total annual present study analyzed the shrimp farms first from a structural
point of view using classification and clustering, and subsequently
compared the identified systems for their main resource (labor,
* Corresponding author. feed and capital) use efficiency and for disease outbreak
E-mail address: [email protected] (O.M. Joffre). occurrence, shrimp yield and total aquaculture yield.

0167-8809/$ – see front matter ß 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.agee.2009.03.010
 Author's personal copy

154 O.M. Joffre, R.H. Bosma / Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 132 (2009) 153–159

2. Materials and methods gross return agriculture (mVND/ha/yr); gross return fish and
other crustaceans (mVND/ha/yr); average pond size (ha) and
2.1. Sampling and data collection commercial feed used (kg/ha/yr). Fresh water period was included
in the original variables set to check if shrimp farms were
The primary information upon which this study is based was dependent on water salinity period or if shrimp farming was also
collected during a survey in Bac Lieu province (Mekong Delta, developing in fresh water areas. The rice–shrimp production
Vietnam) from February to April 2007, within the Consultative system was included in the analysis, using variables such as LUI
Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) Challenge rice and gross return of agriculture. However, other agricultural or
Program on Water and Food PN10, to enhance our understanding livestock productions were not integrated in the analysis as their
of livelihood changes resulting from regional resources manage- importance at the farm level was relatively small. Following
ment and farm-level technological interventions. In Bac Lieu Milstein et al. (2005), all variables were normalized before the
province hydrological conditions are diverse due to the analysis. The factors were rotated using VARIMAX with Kaiser
construction of a series of sluice gates regulating saline water Normalization, an orthogonal rotation procedure, to increase the
intrusion since 1994. Survey sites were characterized by different interpretability.
agro-ecological environments; the latter defined primarily in In a second step, shrimp farms were clustered according to the
function of the duration of fresh water availability. In this study, new factors, using first a hierarchical clustering technique (Ward’s
a saline environment is permanently under tidal influence and methods, in Ward, 1963) to estimate the number of clusters.
saline water intrusion, a brackish water environment has a Secondly, a K-mean clustering technique procedure was used to
maximum of 6 months of fresh water per year and a saline obtain the cluster centers. To test if initial variables were
influenced fresh water environment has more than 6 months of significantly different between different clusters, we used ANOVA
fresh water per year. Information on farming site and farm and post hoc tests (Games and Howell in SPSS, 2007).
characteristics, labor use, aquaculture techniques, investments,
costs, production and benefits was collected at 170 farms. For 2.3. Comparison of farm types
each survey site, an overview of existing aquaculture production
systems was available from the project’s baseline survey. Farms After classification, the production systems were compared for
included in the survey were selected by extension services, for their ‘‘Disease outbreak occurrence’’ (which represents the percen-
which an important criterion was farmer availability. Of the tage of ponds where a shrimp disease occurs during one shrimp crop,
surveyed farms 29 were located in a saline influenced fresh water calculated for each farm), but also for their shrimp yield (kg/ha) and
environment, 88 in a brackish environment and 53 in a saline total aquaculture yield (kg/ha). Average shrimp and aquaculture yield
environment. and feed, labor and capital use efficiencies were computed only for
A range of variables was selected and their values calculated farms not affected by virus outbreak with the goal of making an
from the data. The land use intensity (LUI) was calculated as the unbiased comparison of the farm’s performances. Aquaculture and
percentage of the farm area dedicated to a specific activity. The shrimp yield were also computed for only virus affected farms to
variable number of aquaculture species indirectly describes the level estimate the loss in productivity. A one-way ANOVA and a Games
of aquaculture diversification on the farm. Contracted workers is the and Howell post hoc test were used to identify significant differences
number of permanent hired workers on a shrimp farm during the between production systems (p < 0.05).
shrimp culture cycle, either on monthly or yearly basis. This
category of workers is distinguished from occasional workers hired 3. Results
on a daily basis during pond preparation or harvest. Start-up
investment represents the capital invested in equipment, land and 3.1. Classification
pond construction at the start of the aquaculture activity. The feed
conversion ratio represents the quantity of feed given (kg) per Factor analysis identified 3 orthogonal linear combinations of
kilogram of aquaculture product (dimensionless). Labor produc- the 13 original variables (Table 1), explaining 68% of the total
tivity represents the total aquaculture production in kg/ha per variance. Factor 1 had 8 main components (component loading
laborer day. Capital use efficiency was calculated as the ratio of with an absolute value above 0.5), 3 with negative signs related to
gross return to capital cost. Capital cost includes operational cost intensification (shrimp stocking density, start-up investment and
and start-up investment (including depreciation of equipment).
Table 1
Fresh water period represents months with a surface water salinity
The rotated factor matrix, result from a principal component analysis based on 13
<4 ppt (data from the Hydraulic Department of Bac Lieu Province). variables of 170 shrimp producing farms (GR = gross return).
The salinity was recorded monthly at 87 points distributed over
Component
the province with a portable refractometer (Atago Refractometer
Model S/Mill E) in primary and secondary canals. For each survey 1 2 3
site, we referred to the closest salinity sample point to delimit the Farm area (ha) 0.613 0.112 0.390
time period where salinity is above or under a certain level. We Number of aquaculture species 0.745 0.227 0.168
considered 4 ppt the upper limit for rice cultivation. Stocking density (PL/m2) 0.701 0.509 0.307
Start-up investment cost (mVND/ha) 0.606 0.480 0.355
GR fish and other crustaceans (mVND/ha/yr) 0.623 0.175 0.132
2.2. Classification of farm types
LUI aquaculture (%) 0.663 0.249 0.157
Average pond size (ha) 0.724 0.235 0.044
As a first step, factor analysis was used to create a smaller set of Commercial feed (kg/ha/yr) 0.548 0.413 0.429
composite variables to replace the original 13 variables: farm area GR agriculture (mVND/ha/yr) 0.047 0.896 0.015
(ha); LUI rice (%); LUI aquaculture (%); contract workers (person/ LUI rice (%) 0.074 0.921 0.049
Fresh water period (salinity < 4 ppt) (month/year) 0.182 0.808 0.007
ha/yr); ratio family labor/total labor (%); fresh water period Contracted workers (man/ha) 0.202 0.172 0.836
(months); P. monodon stocking density (PL/m2); number of Ratio family/total labor 0.126 0.153 0.864
aquaculture species raised; start-up investment (mVND1/ha);
% of the total variation explained 27.2 24.8 16.0
1
mVND: Million Vietnam Dong. Note: Factors with eigenvalue above 1 were extracted.
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O.M. Joffre, R.H. Bosma / Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 132 (2009) 153–159 155

commercial feed used) and 5 with positive signs related to extensive All variables had a significant role in structuring the data
and diversified brackish water aquaculture (number of aquaculture (Table 3). For fresh water period, a range instead of distinctive
species, farm area, average pond size, gross return fish and other characteristics is given.
crustaceans and LUI aquaculture). This factor represented ‘‘intensi- Cluster 1: Brackish water polyculture farms are located in areas
fication and specialization’’ of the aquaculture activity, showing the with 3 months of fresh water on average. The aquaculture
orientation of the production toward intensification (negative production of these farms is diverse, with P. monodon, mud crab
loading), with high stocking density in a shrimp monoculture and high value fish; the number of aquaculture species raised is
system using high level of inputs and equipments. Positively significantly higher than other farm types. Farm area is signifi-
loaded, we found large extensive farms operating larger ponds cantly larger in brackish water polyculture farms with an average of
stocked with several aquaculture species during the year. Farms 3.0  1.8 ha than in rice–shrimp farms and intensive family shrimp
with positive loading on this factor represent extensive diversified farms. Average pond size, is also significantly higher in brackish water
aquaculture farms. This component accounts for 27% of the original polyculture farms (1.4  0.7 ha) than in intensive commercial and
variance in the set of 13 variables. intensive family farms. Shrimp stocking density is lower than in other
Factor 2 had 4 significant loading: LUI rice, fresh water period, farm types; farmers use a multiple stocking technique and do not use
gross return agriculture and stocking density. This factor represented manufactured feed pellets. Start-up investment is significantly lower
the ‘‘diversification of the farm production’’ with an alternating than in clusters 3 and 4. Moreover, gross return from fish and crab is
agriculture–aquaculture system. This component accounts for 24% significantly higher than in other farm types. Labor input is mainly
of the original variance in the set of 13 variables. Factor 3 had 2 based on household labor and occasionally workers are hired for
significant loading, with ratio family labor/total labor and contract specific tasks such as pond preparation.
workers thus representing the ‘‘labor origin’’ differencing family Cluster 2: Rice–shrimp farms, are mainly located in a specific
and commercial farms. This component accounts for 16% of the agro-ecological area, with an average period of fresh water of 6.5
original variance in the set of 13 variables. months. In 24% of the cases the rice crop is associated with
The hierarchical cluster analysis based on these 3 factors concurrent fresh water aquaculture (fish or fresh water prawns)
indicated the presence of 4 clusters. The non-hierarchical K-means during the rainy season. The remaining 76% of the farms do not
cluster analysis was used to obtain the four cluster centers stock fish or other crustaceans in their rice field and harvest only
(Table 2). We identified 4 different types of shrimp farms: ‘‘brackish wild fish trapped in the pond. During the dry season, all farms
water polyculture farm’’, ‘‘rice–shrimp farm’’, ‘‘intensive commercial culture shrimp. These farms use household labor and occasionally
farm’’ and ‘‘intensive family farm’’. All the 3 factors had an influence hire workers on a daily basis for both rice and shrimp culture. The
on the clustering. However, factor 1 was dominant in defining shrimp stocking density (2.43  1.77 PL/m2) is significantly lower
clusters ‘‘brackish water polyculture’’ and ‘‘intensive family’’; factor 2 than in clusters 3 and 4, but significantly higher than in cluster 1
dominated in defining the ‘‘rice–shrimp’’ cluster, whereas labor (p < 0.05). The production system practiced is extensive with low
origin (factor 3) played a major role in defining the cluster start-up investment and no use of commercial feed. According to the
‘‘intensive commercial farm’’. seasonal changes, farmers diversified their production systems, with
agricultural production in fresh water environments and shrimp
Table 2 culture in brackish water environments.
The contribution of the three classification factors to the four cluster centers.
Cluster 3: Intensive commercial farms, are mainly located in
Cluster areas with 2.6 months of fresh water. These farms are specialized
in intensive shrimp culture using contract workers on a 6 monthly
Classification factors Brackish Rice–shrimp Intensive Intensive
water commercial family basis to operate small sized ponds. The average farm size is larger
polyculture than in cluster 4 and the start-up investment is higher than in all 3
other farm types. Compared to extensive systems (clusters 1 and 2)
Intensification and 1.083 0.122 0.625 0.984
specialization cluster 3 is characterized by the use of commercial feed and a
Farm diversification 0.570 1.359 0.565 0.730 specialization toward shrimp culture.
Labor origin 0.278 0.0571 2.716 0.420 Cluster 4: Intensive family farms, were specialized in P. monodon
culture and presented similar characteristics as cluster 3. However,

Table 3
The number of farms and the averages  standards deviation of a range of characteristics of the shrimp production systems identified by cluster analysis.

Cluster

Brackish water Rice–shrimp Intensive Intensive family

polyculture commercial

Numbers 56 54 14 46
Farm area (ha) 3.01  1.79a 1.93  1.30b 2.75  3.15ab 1.39  0.83b
Average pond size (ha) 1.40  0.72a 1.07  0.67a 0.36  0.08b 0.32  0.11b
Contracted workers (man/ha/yr) 0  0.0 0  0.0 1.58  0,81a 0.05  0.19b
Ratio family labor/total labor 0.79  0.24b 0.72  0.2b 0.12  0.17c 0.95  0.13a
Fresh water period (months)* <6a >6b <6a <6a
LUI rice (%) 0  0.0 77.1  11.3a 0  0.0 1.5  10.0b
LUI aquaculture (%) 95.3  2.9a 91.6  6.5b 89.1  7.6b 80.2  15.8c
Number of aquaculture species 2.3  0.78a 1.28  0.52b 1.00  0.0c 1.04  0.29c
Shrimp stocking density (PL/m2) 1.71  0.76c 2.43  1.77b 21.64  8.87a 18.76  8.23a
Start-up investment (mVND/ha) 5.55  2.55b 6.56  2.37b 61.65  27.49a 45.53  27.87a
Commercial feed (mVND/ha/yr) 0 113  379b 9245  8248a 4899  4620a
Gross return agriculture (mVND/ha/yr) – 8.87  3.83 – –
Gross return fish and crustaceans (mVND/ha/yr) 5.30  6.33a 1.33  1.83b 0  0.0 0.05  0.24c

*For the variable: ‘‘Fresh Water Period’’ each cell provides the range of the variable.
abc: Cluster values in one row with no superscript letter in common are significantly different (p < 0.05).
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156 O.M. Joffre, R.H. Bosma / Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 132 (2009) 153–159

compared to clusters 1 and 3 the average farm area was respectively. In terms of production, wild fish represented 123 and
significantly smaller (p < 0.05). Moreover, household members 59 kg/ha/yr for brackish water polyculture and rice–shrimp farms,
operated small sized ponds (0.3  0.1 ha) and the farms only respectively. Even if the total aquaculture production was higher in
employed contract workers sporadically; consequently the ratio brackish water polyculture farms than in rice–shrimp farms, the total
family labor/total labor was higher than other farm types. Start-up yield was higher in this last farm type when we included
investment and commercial feed used, as well as stocking density agricultural production, with an average productivity of
(with an average of 18 PL/m2) were higher than in clusters 1 and 2. 3497  1419 kg/ha/yr compared to 314  202 kg/ha/yr.
Surprisingly, this cluster showed significant lower aquaculture land On rice–shrimp and brackish water polyculture farms shrimp
use intensity than other clusters. Actually, on these farms not all the yields and the effects of disease were about similar; both of these
owned or rented land was used for production and it was common for farm types showed a strong reduction of their shrimp production
part of the farm to remain fallow due to lack of capital for investment. in the case of virus outbreak. In brackish polyculture farms shrimp
These farms were relatively close to cluster 3, in terms of yield became lower than in rice–shrimp farms when we take into
specialization and intensification, but they differed in origin of labor. account only virus affected farms. However, the overall aqua-
culture production remains higher than in rice–shrimp farms. When
3.2. Aquaculture yield and disease outbreak we take into account the entire sample (including both virus
affected and non-virus affected farms), fish and crab represented
Disease outbreak results were based on farmer’s records of 29% of the farm gross return in brackish water polyculture farms. The
disease outbreaks in their ponds in 2006. For each pond, farmers investment of these farms was still oriented toward shrimp
were asked if a viral shrimp disease occurred, causing either mass culture, with more than 81% of the operational cost allocated to
mortality or partial crop loss. In 2006, intensive commercial farms shrimp. Only rice–shrimp farms allocated less than 70% to shrimp
presented the lowest disease occurrence, followed by rice–shrimp while all other farm types invested over 80%.
farms. Intensive family farms and brackish water polyculture farms
had a higher virus disease occurrence with more than 30% of each 3.3. Feed, capital and labor efficiency
of these types of farms affected by a disease outbreak (Table 4).
However, outbreaks on intensive farms having several ponds The average feed conversion ratio was 1.37  0.37 and
mostly did not affect all ponds; sometimes only 5–10% of the ponds 1.53  0.70 for intensive commercial and intensive family farms,
were affected. For extensive shrimp culture systems, rice–shrimp respectively (p < 0.05). Only these two farm types were using
farms had a significantly lower disease outbreak frequency than manufactured feed pellets; the aquaculture production in other farm
brackish water polyculture farms. types was based on the natural productivity of the pond.
Shrimp and total aquaculture yields were computed using The operational cost in intensive commercial farms (257 mVND/
farms where no disease outbreak occurred and the same analysis ha/yr, including labor cost, post-larvae and other inputs) was 45 and
was conducted with only farms affected by virus disease. Intensive 25 times higher than in brackish water polyculture farms (6.65 mVND/
commercial and intensive family farms had the highest shrimp yield ha/yr) and rice–shrimp farms (10.34 mVND/ha/yr), respectively. The
and total aquaculture production, including fish and other average operational cost recorded in intensive commercial farms
crustaceans or when rice production was included. Intensive showed the level of the investment capacity needed to follow this
commercial farms did not show a wide difference in production technology compared to rice–shrimp or brackish water polyculture
results between disease free and disease affected farms; in only farms where the operational cost is for PLs mainly.
one farm of this type, more than 50% of the ponds were affected by The non-infected rice–shrimp and brackish water polyculture
virus outbreaks. However, 17 of the 25 intensive family farms farms showed a significantly higher capital use efficiency than
affected by virus outbreak had more than 50% of the ponds affected intensive farms (p < 0.05) (Fig. 1). However, the difference with the
by viruses, and their shrimp yield and aquaculture production was
71% lower than in disease free farms.
Compared to rice–shrimp farms, the total aquaculture produc-
tion was higher in the case of the brackish water polyculture farms,
with 49% of the production composed of mud crab (Scylla spp), wild
and stocked fish such as elongated goby (Pseudoelongatus
apocryptes) or seabass (Lates calcarifer). Fish, mud crab or fresh
water prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) production always
followed extensive raising techniques, with low stocking density
(<1 ind/m2) and based on natural productivity of the pond. For
mud crab the average yield was 44 kg/ha/yr in brackish water
polyculture farms and the average fish production was 116 and Fig. 1. Capital use efficiency (ratio of gross return to capital cost) in disease free
96 kg/ha for brackish water polyculture and rice–shrimp farms, farms and for all farms (error bars represent standard deviation).

Table 4
The percentage (SD) of ponds affected by disease outbreak, number of disease free farms, and shrimp and total aquaculture production on disease free farms and in virus affected
farms in 2006 by farm type.

Type of farm Brackish water polyculture Rice–shrimp Intensive commercial Intensive family
a bc bc
Virus outbreak (% farms) 49  45 25  36 13  27 32  36ab
Number disease free farms* 17 (56) 32 (54) 9 (14) 21 (46)
P. monodon yield in disease free farms (kg/ha/yr) 242  109a 217  167a 6191  4372b 4603  2665b
Aquaculture production in disease free farms (kg/ha/yr) 469  179b 299  163a 6191  4372c 4603  2653c
P. monodon yield in virus affected farms (kg/ha/yr) 77  13a 146  60a 6129  2316ab 1334  315b
Aquaculture production in virus affected farms (kg/ha/yr) 247  28a 213  60a 6129  2316ab 1334  313b

*In parenthesis the total number of farms.

abc: Cluster values in one row with no superscript letter in common are significantly different (p < 0.05).
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O.M. Joffre, R.H. Bosma / Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 132 (2009) 153–159 157

Fig. 2. Labor productivity based on aquaculture production on disease free farms (error bars represent standard deviation).

intensive farms was non-significant when including farms affected Usually, shrimp farm typologies are based on the level of
by virus outbreak in the calculation, as the capital use efficiency intensification, using variables such as farm area, stocking density
was halved in brackish water polyculture and slightly reduced in and level of inputs (Nedeco, 1993; World Bank and MOFI, 2006).
rice–shrimp farms. We used similar variables reflecting the functioning of the shrimp
Labor productivity (Fig. 2) of the intensive family farms, farm and added variables such as agro-ecological factors (fresh
producing more than 15 kg/day, was slightly higher compared water period), or diversification of the production (LUI rice, gross
to the intensive commercial shrimp farms. These two farm types return from agriculture, gross return of fish and crab, number of
were mainly differentiated by their labor origin, with more than aquaculture species) and origin of labor. The use of these variables
94% of the labor done by household manpower in the case of was motivated by a previous survey showing that shrimp farming
intensive family shrimp farm, whereas intensive commercial shrimp in the Mekong Delta occurred also in rice based production
farms were mainly operated by hired labor (88%). The labor systems and in mixed saline systems (Joffre, 2006).
productivity of the rice–shrimp and brackish water polyculture
extensive shrimp farms types was less than 10 kg/day of shrimp. 4.2. Evolution of shrimp farming in the Mekong Delta
Covariate analysis showed that average pond size does not
influence the labor productivity, whereas the farm size has a Previously, an Australian Centre For International Agriculture
significant effect (p < 0.05). A possible explanation is that the (ACIAR) project in 1997 had analyzed the development of shrimp
higher labor productivity for shrimp production of the intensive farming in the same region from an economical and environmental
farms is due to the different orientation: mono-culture shrimp point of view (Brennan et al., 2000; Be et al., 1999). Other studies
versus mixed systems for the extensive farms. focused on integrated mangrove–shrimp systems (De Graaf and
Off farm activity revenue was significantly higher in extensive Xuan, 1998; Johnston et al., 2000; Minh et al., 2001; Luttrell, 2006).
systems than in intensive systems, with average revenue of Since then, few studies had described the evolution of shrimp
1.4 mVND/household/yr for brackish water polyculture and rice– farming in the area. During the past 15 years, driven by the
shrimp farms. These households are more dependent on off farm international market and the development of the shrimp industry,
activity such as pond preparation and rice harvest to secure their Vietnamese shrimp farms had evolved into new production
livelihood and finance their production. Non-farm activity was not systems.
significantly different between farm types, even if intensive The shrimp aquaculture systems described by Brennan et al.
commercial farms have higher average revenue from non-farm (2000) were all based on extensive shrimp culture and concurrent
activities. rice–shrimp culture. In 1997, 46% of the shrimp farms were
recruiting wild post-larvae and only 2% were using P. monodon
4. Discussion monoculture. At this time the recorded shrimp yields were
between 14 and 139 kg/ha, using low inputs (fertilizer and lime)
4.1. Scope of the study and sometimes additional farm-made feed. At present, natural
recruitment of shrimp has totally disappeared and the rice–shrimp
The analysis has shown that two types of specialized intensive culture system described in the saline environment was replaced
farms differed by the level of hired labor and two types of extensive by brackish water polyculture farms or intensive shrimp farms.
farms differed by the agro-ecological environment and the Comparatively, our study shows that shrimp culture has evolved
production diversity. Compared to Brennan et al. (2000), our toward diversification with mainly mud crab, and toward
sample was more geographically diversified within Bac Lieu intensification fuelled by technology, notably the development
province, with several sample sites located further inland where of shrimp post-larvae hatcheries. On one side, the intensification of
fresh water availability continues for a longer duration, allowing these production systems presents the same pathway as in
rice cultivation. Our farm sample included several agro-ecological Thailand several years ago (Lebel et al., 2002). On the other side,
conditions to obtain an overview of shrimp farms, however our diversification of aquaculture production can present an alter-
sample remains small. The larger intensive commercial farms native to intensification for small scale farmers with the
could not be included due to strict preventive measures designed development of niche markets. In comparison with shrimp
to reduce the risk of virus contamination in the production site. production systems described in Thailand or Central Vietnam
Visitors can be potential virus carrier and are not allowed to enter (Lebel et al., 2002; World Bank and MOFI, 2006), Mekong Delta’s
production site. Ways to include data from these large farms in shrimp farms practice a wide range of extensive systems and seem
future studies should be explored. to be more diversified. This diversity might allow a different
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158 O.M. Joffre, R.H. Bosma / Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 132 (2009) 153–159

evolution than in other shrimp production areas in South Asia and reduced, but this requires technology investments which will
South East Asia where shrimp farming had a negative social and reduce its high capital use efficiency. For rice–shrimp farms, capital
environmental impact (Primavera, 1997; Deb, 1998; Barbier and use efficiency and economic results are interesting due to
Cox, 2002; Lebel et al., 2002; Hossain et al., 2004; Primavera, 2006). ecological advantages. Though aquaculture yield is higher in
However, the future of the shrimp farming in the Mekong Delta is brackish water polyculture farms the total yield remains higher in
still dependent on the capacity of the production systems to avoid rice–shrimp farms. The opportunity to grow a rice crop between
or minimize the effect of virus outbreak. two shrimp crops allows farmers to diversify their production with
a secure crop, thus reducing the economic risk. However, in both
4.3. Virus outbreak rice–shrimp and brackish water polyculture farms, shrimp yields
remain low (under 300 kg/ha/yr) and both production systems are
In 1997, Brennan et al. (2000) highlighted disease outbreak as partially dependent on wild fish catch.
one of the causes of the low yield recorded. This remains the case in
2007, especially for most of the brackish water polyculture farms. 5. Conclusion
Rice–shrimp systems, using frequent water exchange, present a
relatively low percentage of disease outbreak compared to closed Since the early nineties, Mekong Delta’s coastal aquaculture is
systems such as intensive family farms. This result is in accordance developing fast with the industrialization of the shrimp sector.
with field observation done by Vietnamese researchers in other Changes and evolution of the production systems are part of this
provinces of the Mekong Delta (N.V. Hao, pers. com.). The development as farmers respond both to the market and to virus
difference of disease outbreak between intensive commercial and outbreaks.
family farms could be explained by technological differences: This study shows that ecological and technical factors are
higher investments in water treatment and water quality influencing the diversity of shrimp farms in the coastal area of the
monitoring as well as a higher knowledge of shrimp culture. Mekong Delta. Brackish water polyculture farms are highly affected by
Intensive commercial farms sometimes hired engineers to monitor virus outbreak and are no future option for shrimp farming without
the crop. This result is in accordance with recent observations that investments in technology. In contrast, rice–shrimp farms with their
the impact of White Spot virus can be strongly reduced by high low shrimp yields, represent a sustainable production system in
levels of bio-security (preventive measures against contamination) agro-environments with a long fresh water season. Intensification
and minimum water exchange (Sorgeloos, pers. com.; Verdegem, through technological investments and increased biodiversity
pers. com.). Though even with a higher level of know-how and reduces disease outbreaks and improves results of farms specialized
technology, shrimp farmers are still at risk of massive crop failure. in shrimp production. Intensive production systems seem to be
Farmers manage this vulnerability by adopting coping strategies economically sustainable on a short term period, but studies on mid
such as increasing the number of ponds. This strategy might be the and long term efficiency of intensive commercial farms including the
reasons for the absence of a difference in shrimp yield between ‘biosecure’ commercial farms, are needed.
virus affected and non-virus affected intensive commercial farms.
This absence of a difference might also reflect the capacity of Acknowledgements
shrimp farmers to harvest at the early stage of virus infection while
the shrimps are still marketable. Intensification of the production, The authors would like to thank the CGIAR Challenge Program for
using technology to prevent virus and increase production did not Water and Food (CPWF) Project No. 10 (Managing Water and Land
always prevent from virus infection and massive crop loss; no Resources for Sustainable Livelihoods at the Interface between Fresh
conclusion can be drawn on the mid–long term sustainability and Saline Water Environments in Vietnam and Bangladesh) for
perspective of intensive systems in the Mekong Delta. support to the study presented in this paper. This article is WorldFish
Center contribution no. 1908. The contributions of staff of the
4.4. Diversification of the production Research Institute for Aquaculture No. 2 in Vietnam and the
provincial, district and village authorities in Bac Lieu province are
The development of diversified brackish water polyculture also appreciated. Farmers are acknowledged for their time and
production systems aims to compensate for the risk of disease information provided during the interviews. The authors wish to
outbreak. By diversifying production with mud crab or high value thank Dr. Marc Verdegem and Professor Johan Verreth from
fish (elongated goby, seabass) and in few cases fresh water prawn, Wageningen University for their valuable comments and support.
farmers minimize the impact of losing their part of aquaculture
crop by having a relatively more secure production such as crab or References
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