Mass shrimp deaths - farmers face difficulties

(Baonghean)The scorching July sun has added to the grief of shrimp farmers in Quynh Lien (Quynh Luu) when nearly 40 households in the commune all had shrimp die simultaneously for unknown reasons. Hundreds of millions of dong of each household suddenly disappeared. The feeling of confusion and pressure to repay bank loans is weighing heavily on every shrimp farming family here...

Seeing the guests arrive, Mr. Ho Minh Duoc walked up from the shrimp pond, drenched in sweat: "All the shrimp are dead, journalist!" He owed the bank 1.4 billion VND, what will he use to pay it back? Mr. Ho Minh Duoc's family invested in raising 6 shrimp ponds, with an area of ​​25,000 m2 in Hamlet 8, Quynh Lien Commune (Quynh Luu). At the beginning of the farming season, his family released 2.3 million shrimp fry, after 45 days of farming, the shrimp started to die, and in the next 10 days, all 6 shrimp ponds died completely.

Within just 2 days, 6 tons of shrimp died simultaneously. Mr. Duoc's family was shocked, worried, and heartbroken to see billions of dong lost along with the shrimp. After nearly 2 months of staying up and sleeping with the shrimp, it was thought that the first shrimp harvest was almost ready, but unexpectedly, the risk suddenly struck, the family only managed to salvage 300 million dong, not enough to pay for feed for the dealer, and lost more than 1 billion dong in investment in repairing, dredging ponds, seeds, antibiotics, labor... Mr. Duoc's family is applying to the bank for a debt extension and earnestly hopes that the bank will create conditions for shrimp farmers facing risks to continue to add collateral, continue to borrow capital to restore production.



Shrimps died en masse, leaving shrimp ponds exposed at the bottom in Quynh Lien commune.

Mr. Nguyen Thang Long, Hamlet 8 - Quynh Lien shared: My family raises more than 1 hectare of shrimp, at the beginning of the season, we released 1.1 million shrimp, after 1 month of raising the shrimp showed signs of jumping in the water, turning their bellies up and dying quickly, within 2-3 hours, hundreds of tons of shrimp died on the bottom of the pond. Just one day later, the entire pond area with 1.1 million shrimp died, through observation, the dead shrimp all had ruptured livers. The family sold more than 100 million VND, but still lost over 200 million VND. Losing capital, but the most worrying thing for people now is hoping that the professional agency will soon find the cause of the mass shrimp deaths? so that shrimp farmers can prepare a prevention plan and feel secure in restoring production.

Entering the 2012 farming season, Quynh Lien commune has 39 shrimp farming households, with a total area of ​​53.7 hectares, 100% of which are white-leg shrimp. Mr. Nguyen Van Thuyet - the officer in charge of land and agriculture in Quynh Lien commune said: In early May (solar calendar), people focused on releasing shrimp in large numbers, this year due to poor quality of shrimp, some households released shrimp into the pond for only 1-2 days and they died en masse... Seeing that the quality of the CP Company's shrimp was poor, farmers bought shrimp from many other establishments such as Viet Uc, UB, Vina, but the quality of the shrimp was not better. After releasing shrimp for more than 1 month, shrimp appeared to be sick but not white spot disease like previous years, this year it was a strange disease in shrimp with symptoms of hepatopancreas disease and shrimp died en masse.

Up to now, 39/39 shrimp farming households in the commune have suffered from shrimp deaths for unknown reasons. Each pond has an area of ​​4,000 - 5,000 m2, the total investment cost for shrimp farming in 1 month is about 160 million VND/pond. Thus, the lowest capital support is 200 - 300 million VND, households raising 5 - 6 shrimp ponds have lost billions. Many households rely entirely on bank loans to raise shrimp, now all the shrimp have died, leaving behind debts of hundreds of millions, even billions of VND, struggling, confused, not knowing where to look to pay the debt...

According to statistics from June 8 to June 28, 2012, the entire Quynh Lien commune had 44 hectares of shrimp ponds that died of disease, with total losses of over 20 billion VND. In addition, Quynh Lien also had about 50-60 households buying ponds in neighboring communes such as Quynh Loc, Mai Hung, Quynh Bang, Quynh Luong, Quynh Minh to raise shrimp, but they also suffered from the same situation of shrimp dying en masse for unknown reasons.

To control shrimp diseases, on June 22, 2012, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development held a conference to improve the management of shrimp farming areas in 2012 in Quynh Luu district. At this conference, the Department's leaders requested that localities stop releasing shrimp larvae because shrimp diseases occur at any time, including diseased areas and areas that have not been released in epidemic areas. Farmers should renovate ponds and wait for the disease to subside, while the cause of the disease has not been clearly identified.

Quynh Lan