Abstract
The government of Vietnam has selected shrimp production and exports as the pillars of rural economic development. The targets set depend on high yields through production intensification. International and national public research communities have raised production intensification concerns related to environmental and climate change challenges, such as saltwater intrusion, water pollution, disease outbreaks, mangrove destruction, and natural resource degradation. Social snags such as user right conflicts of water resources, food safety problems, tariff barriers, and attempts to taint the industry’s image by competitors also plague the industry. These give rise to the problem of certification and questions about the influence of standards on the small-scale farming sustainability in a competitive global environment. The questions asked are, how can one bring together small-scale shrimp farmers to comply with international standards? Can small-scale shrimp farming co-exist with super-intensive producers to bring about a sustainable and competitive industry? A proposed model to horizontally organize the limited resource farmers into cooperatives to vertically integrate with large-scale firms producing shrimp using super-intensive production methods shows small-scale farmers adopting super-intensive production methods that can generate higher yields, income, profits, and is more environmentally friendly and requires less water and land. The capital requirements are high for limited resource farmers. However, with the interest showed by banks in financing models that are appropriate for small-scale farms integrated with larger firms engaged in super-intensive production systems, along with government assistance, these small-scale shrimp producing units can attain higher levels of sustainability than the open, less intensive production systems.
Highlights
Shrimp production intensification is one of the agricultural development paths, high tech agriculture innovation, chosen by the Vietnamese government to meet its millennium sustainable development goals
This paper ends with a conclusion and a set of recommendations. It conducts a review of literature and performed secondary data analyses using graphs to answer the question: Can super-intensive shrimp production systems lead to sustainability of shrimp production with small-scale producers? The paper presents a strategy for organizing small-scale farmers to meet production targets and international product standards and certification
Shrimp farming has been explicitly encouraged by the Vietnamese government and local authorities, with the promulgation of government resolution allowing transformation of low productivity rice/salt fields into shrimp aquaculture [4,127]
Summary
Shrimp production intensification is one of the agricultural development paths, high tech agriculture innovation, chosen by the Vietnamese government to meet its millennium sustainable development goals. The sustainability of whiteleg shrimp production and marketing in Vietnam is evaluated as producers attempt to increase yield per ha to meet government targeted levels of exports. Shrimp farming in Vietnam, is currently facing a number of challenges linked to production intensification and climate change events that hinder the sustainable development of the sector [13]. It is reported that this phenomenon is common in Ninh Thuan province of Central Vietnam, where only 96 out of 250 shrimp farmers are locals [11,42] Added to these pressures from developed countries, such as the US and EU, the seafood sector in Vietnam has faced a plethora of new standards over the past decade [43], some with complementary effects, that have resulted in serious changes in the food industry. It conducts a review of literature and performed secondary data analyses using graphs to answer the question: Can super-intensive shrimp production systems lead to sustainability of shrimp production with small-scale producers? The paper presents a strategy for organizing small-scale farmers to meet production targets and international product standards and certification
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