Abstract
Uncertainty about efficiency and sustainability of shrimp production due to diseases and climatic events may prevent Vietnam from attaining US $10 million target from shrimp exports by 2025. We surveyed 120 and 159 shrimp farmers from Khánh Hòa and Trà Vinh provinces, respectively, to obtain information on their input use, production levels and the effects of diseases and climate change events on their farm profitability. Stochastic production frontier analysis (SFA) discovered that the number of workers, crops and seed costs positively influenced farmers’ profits, while cost of chemicals and labour negatively affected the profit of Khánh Hòa farmers. The number of workers and chemical costs positively affected profits in Trà Vinh, while cost of labour and energy, the number of crops and average stocking density negatively influenced farmer profit in Trà Vinh. Number of years of schooling, experience and average size of ponds positively influenced economic efficiency, while the number of ponds and climatic change events negatively influenced efficiency in Khánh Hòa province. Age and alternative power source positively affected economic efficiency, while disease prevalence affected efficiency of Trà Vinh. All farms practicing intensive or extensive shrimp production achieved 90% efficiency. The government should encourage the wise use of resources, high-quality seeds and a sensitive balance between intensive and extensive culture to sustainably attain its national production and export goals.
Highlights
Many developing countries embrace shrimp farming as a strategy to promote economic growth and development [1]
The farmers interviewed ranged in age from 26 to 68 y, with the farmers in Khánh Hòa having an average age of 51.6 y and those in Trà Vinh 42.9 y
The study showed that farmers in both provinces achieved high levels of economic efficiency in L. vannamei production
Summary
Many developing countries embrace shrimp farming as a strategy to promote economic growth and development [1]. Developing countries like Vietnam have encouraged shrimp production and exports as a main tool for securing foreign exchange, bolstering rural employment, and income distribution [2]. Shrimp production intensification has raised Vietnam to third place in the international shrimp trade [5,6], recently there has been doubt about the sustainability of Vietnam’s shrimp exports. Among Vietnamese producers’ many concerns about achieving export and production sustainability are logistics including infrastructure development, the large number of fragmented small-scale producers and lower quality of the product in terms of size and environmental degradation of production intensification [7]. The common, unproven beliefs are that small-scale shrimp producers are unable to farm as efficiently as large-scale ones, and intensive shrimp production is more efficient than extensive shrimp production. The path to national goal attainment is not clear given the looming environmentally negative effects of shrimp production intensification and the low output of extensive shrimp production
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