Quynh Luu shrimp farmers face concerns about lack of breed

(Baonghean) - Quynh Luu is the locality with the largest intensive shrimp farming area in the province. In recent years, from concentrated black tiger shrimp farming, people have switched to white-leg shrimp farming. However, with the strong increase in demand for shrimp seeds and high seasonality, the seed supply facilities in the area have not been able to meet the demand. The current shortage of seeds is causing panic among people and making it difficult for authorities to manage the quality of seeds and direct production according to plan.

In 2007-2008, people introduced white-leg shrimp to raise in Quynh Luu district. The raising process was highly effective, so white-leg shrimp was chosen by farmers and increasingly expanded. Currently, nearly 100% of shrimp farming area in Quynh Luu district has switched to white-leg shrimp farming. In 2012, the white-leg shrimp farming area reached nearly 1,000 hectares, strongly developing in the communes: Quynh Bang, Quynh Xuan, Quynh Lien, Mai Hung, Quynh Luong, An Hoa, Trinh Mon Aquaculture Joint Stock Company.

Quynh Luu shrimp farmers urgently prepare ponds for the new crop.

However, currently, farmers are facing difficulties in breeding, because shrimp breeding farms in the district do not have enough conditions to produce. CP Company (Thailand), Vina Company, Viet Uc Company, Thong Thuan Company are the units that supply breeding to people... The density of black tiger shrimp is 15-25 shrimp/m2, while that of whiteleg shrimp is 80-100 shrimp/m2, so the demand for breeding is very large, the time of stocking is concentrated, leading to difficulties for suppliers. The demand for shrimp breeding is enough for nearly 1,000 hectares of farming in Quynh Luu district, requiring about 1 billion breeding shrimp.

Without seeds, people have to wait. In previous years, many households even had to deposit money months in advance to buy seeds but still could not get any. Due to the lack of seeds, people had to buy a lot of floating seeds, it was difficult to control the origin as well as the quality of the seeds. Even though they knew that, at the beginning of the season, people prepared ponds, treated water, and spent a lot of initial costs. When the day of release came, there were no seeds, so they had to risk buying floating seeds with the mindset of one gain and one loss.

Mr. Ho Minh Duoc - Hamlet 9 (Quynh Lien) shared: My family raises 3 hectares of shrimp, but before each crop we are always worried about the seed. Because the seed source is passive, branded seed only meets about 45% of the demand of the farming households in the area, the remaining 55% is passive in terms of seed source and has to wait for the company to supply (extending the shrimp release season) or accept to buy seed from other companies without a brand. In 2011, my family needed more than 2 million seed, although we ordered in advance, the company did not meet the schedule, had to extend the release time, and at the same time the quality of the seed was poor, losing the number of seeds.

According to the feedback of shrimp farmers in Quynh Lien commune, the quality of shrimp seed in 2011 was not as good as in 2010. In 2011, only 50% of the seed quality met the requirements. This year, if the Joint Stock Company meets the seed demand, my family will start releasing the first batch on March 20 (lunar calendar), with a total quantity of 2.5 million seeds needed.

According to the data of the Department of Agriculture of Quynh Luu district, the number of seeds raised at the local seed farms can only meet about 40% of the demand, so people are very worried about the lack of seeds before the new release season. Hopefully this year, with the participation of some other companies in raising seeds, the seed situation will be less tense.

Shrimp farmers are waiting for the new supply capacity of hatcheries in 2012. Raising white-leg shrimp is the number 1 choice of shrimp farmers in the province. To proactively have enough seed sources to serve the needs of the people, avoid losses due to buying poor quality seeds of unknown origin, there needs to be a mechanism to create conditions for large companies such as CP, Vina, Viet Uc... to build on-site seed production facilities. It is known that Vina CP Company has also surveyed many times to find a location to build a shrimp seed production farm but has not yet succeeded.

Quynh Lan