Overview of small-scale freshwater aquaculture in central Vietnam: Case study of Thua Thien Hue province

Bc. Lucie Vaňousková

Master's thesis

Abstract:

Fishery resources significantly contribute to the food and income security as well as provide employment for millions of households around the world. As capture fishery is believed to be near of its peak, aquaculture has been perceived as a promising source of fish products. This thesis focuses on the performance of small-scale aquaculture farms in Thua Thien Hue province, central Vietnam. The main aim of the thesis was to document the main techniques applied in aquaculture production with respect to intensification of fish farming systems, fish species composition, demographic profile of households and costs and benefits structure of fish farms. Data were collected during August and September 2015 via semi-structured interviews among 54 households from three different communes. The results showed that farmers practised aquaculture in cages, ponds and rice fields. Cage was determined as intensive while pond and rice field as extensive form of aquaculture. We identified seven fish species but only three of them were bred in intensive aquaculture. Generally, the most common fish species were grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella), followed by silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) and common carp (Cyprinus carpio) (90.7%, 38.9%, 29.6% of households respectively). Extensive farmers exceeded intensive farmers in term of household head age (54.5, 48.9 years respectively), total farm size (1.76, 0.50 ha respectively) and experience with aquaculture (11.7, 7.3 years respectively). Variable costs accounted for 86.8% and 79.8% of total costs in average for extensive and intensive aquaculture respectively; the rest were fixed costs. Intensive systems recorded higher fish production (17.6, 0.25 kg/m2 respectively) as well gross margin (733.6, 1.8 thousand VND/m2). Break-even point for extensive farmer was 4.91 thousand VND/m2, while for intensive it accounted for 160.28 thousand VND/m2. Households running more intensive aquaculture production were more profitable despite of higher costs. However economic benefit should not be the sole indicator of performance of aquaculture farms. Almost all farmers faced problem with fish disease with higher perception among intensive farmers. Thus the attention should be also focused on environmental impact of each aquaculture practices, particularly intensive cage farming in order to keep the environment in balance.

Keywords

traditional farming systems, intensification, aquaculture, household survey, break-even point, gross margin, central Vietnam

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 22. 4. 2016

Thesis defence

• Supervisor: Ing. Vladimír Verner, Ph.D.

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences

Master programme / field:
Tropical Agriculture / International Development and Agricultural Economics