Abstract
The shrimp sector has been one of the fastest growing agri-food systems in the last decades, but its growth has entailed negative social and environmental impacts. Sustainable intensification will require innovation in multiple elements of the shrimp production system and its value chain. We use the case of the shrimp sector in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam to explore the constraints in the transition to sustainable intensification in shrimp farming, using an analytical framework based on innovation systems thinking, i.e., an aquaculture innovation systems framework. Using this framework, we conduct a systemic diagnostic of blocking mechanisms, interrelated sets of constraints within the aquaculture sector that hinder a transition toward sustainable intensification. Our findings show that the major constraints are institutional, with limited enforcement of the regulatory framework for input quality control, disease control, and wastewater management, and a lack of coordination between government bodies to design and enforce this framework. At farm level, limited access to capital favors pond mismanagement and the use of low-quality inputs. The absence of multi-stakeholder initiatives to foster dialog between actors in the value chain constrains the response to new regulations dictated by international market demand. Because of shrimp farming’s connectivity with the wider ecosystem, sustainable intensification in shrimp farming will require collective management of water resources at the landscape level for disease and water pollution control. Ecological principles for pond management need to be promoted to farmers in order to reduce farmers’ inefficient practices and build their capacity to understand new techniques and inputs available in the Vietnamese market. Our paper demonstrates for the utility of a multi-level, multi-dimension, and multi-stakeholder aquaculture innovation systems approach to analyze and address these blocking mechanisms in the transition to sustainable intensification in shrimp farming and aquaculture more broadly.
Highlights
Aquaculture systems have become important for the world’s food and protein supply and are a key component of agri-food systems, supporting food security (Beveridge et al 2013) and contributing to national and local economic growth by providing employment and business opportunities (Phillips et al 2016)
We identify and classify the constraints relating to these problematic issues and their underlying causes in various parts of the system and produced/ reproduced by different stakeholders (Table 2)
A main theoretical implication of our study is that it is essential to look at different levels and dimensions in aquaculture systems and value chains using an aquaculture innovation systems approach
Summary
Aquaculture systems have become important for the world’s food and protein supply and are a key component of agri-food systems, supporting food security (Beveridge et al 2013) and contributing to national and local economic growth by providing employment and business opportunities (Phillips et al 2016). Aquaculture systems grew at a pace higher than 7% 34 Page 2 of 11. The sector has faced disease outbreaks, and recently in Southeast Asia, a new disease appeared with significant drops in production in Thailand and Vietnam (Thitamadee et al 2016). Mostly smallholder farmers, are constantly struggling to adapt to new environmental and disease conditions while responding to consumers’ quality demands and being pushed by local government to intensify their production to reach production targets (Jespersen et al 2014). There have been successes in initiating transitions toward more sustainable systems, with for example producers’ uptake of quality standards for environmental and social performance (Omoto and Scott 2016), developing a sustainable and resilient sector that can integrate smallholder producers remains a challenge
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