A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of science, School of Environment, Resources and Development

Thesis (M.Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2006

In late 1990s, agriculture farmers in Vietnam faced the decreasing price of agricultural products, extensive brackish water shrimp culture attracted the agriculture farmers by higher profitability. Although the expansion of shrimp culture created the problem of overexploitation of the natural seeds and salinization of the rice filed and lower productivities of the rice, the government of Vietnam accepted change from rice to shrimp culture since 2000. This study investigated the current status of technical, environmental and institutional factors in shrimp culture in the Mekong delta. A total of 80 farms in Khanh Hoa and Vinh Tan communes (40 in each commune) in Vinh Chau district were surveyed by individual interview and Participatory Rural Appraisal with 10 participants in each commune. In addition, 4 managers in fisheries sectors and 3 officers in relevant departments of government, 5 owners of postlarval nursing services were interviewed. Information were also collected from published documents and annual reports of fisheries, environment and resources departments. The survey showed that most shrimp farmers are local people. They shifted from rice to shrimp farming because of high profitability of shrimp farming. Rice fields were therefore converted to shrimp farms. Nearly 70% of the farmers started shrimp farming after the year 2000 when government changed the policy to allow shrimp farming in this area. There are semi-intensive and intensive systems and both systems have 2 cropping a year. The period of semi-intensive system is shorter than intensive system because disease outbreak usually - more often happens in semi-intensive system than in intensive due to farmers' lack of technical knowledge, poor irrigation and low investment. Average productivity for semi-intensive and intensive systems were 0.5-1.3 and 0.6- 3 ton /ha/crop, respectively. An economic analysis showed that over 60% of farmers had deficits in 2004, with higher percentage in semi-intensive farmers. Main cause of loss was disease outbreak due to the rapid increase of farms regardless of poor irrigation, low management practice because of lack of awareness, limitation of new information and techniques resulting from limited capacity of fisheries institution, both in quality and quantity.