VietNamNet Bridge – White leg shrimp, which was once called “exotic animals”, have become the top choice for aquaculture in coastal areas. Local residents have chopped down plants in large areas in order to make room for shrimp ponds.

Destroying coconut orchards to breed shrimp

The program on turning some land areas into freshwater areas is being carried out in 12 communes of Ben Tre province. Loc Thuan is one of them.

However, it is likely that the program would fail completely, because saltwater shrimp ponds are developing rapidly in the areas. Here one can see many 5-7 hectare coconut orchards which have been cleared away to make room for shrimp ponds.

Mai Thien Phuc, Deputy Chair of the Loc Thuan Commune People’s Committee, said that the local authorities have told farmers not to destroy coconut orchards for shrimp hatcheries. However, local farmers have ignored the instruction. Thirty hectares of saltwater shrimp ponds have taken shape, which includes 10 hectares of white leg shrimp which have been created from coconut orchards…

Phuc fears that the area of saltwater shrimp ponds located in the freshwater area would continue increasing, which would spoil the agriculture programming and have bad impacts on agricultural production.

In Binh Thoi commune, there are 560 hectares of shrimp ponds already, including 410 hectares of white shrimp ponds. Ngo Thi Thanh Dieu, Deputy Chair of the Binh Thoi People’s Committee, said that the local authorities do not prohibit farmers to expand the white leg shrimp hatchery area. Therefore, the shrimp hatchery area has been expanding, which means that the area for rice fields and coconut orchards has been narrowed.

Also according to Dieu, more than a half of the current 500 hectares of water surface now used for shrimp hatchery were once coconut orchards.

In Binh Dai district alone of Ben Tre province, the area of white leg shrimp ponds has reached 1000 hectares

Ignoring technical measures

Dieu said she feels “something unsafe” when realizing that farmers do not strictly follow the technical measures suggested by scientists when breeding shrimp. The waste water from shrimp hatcheries still cannot be controlled, while it still has been illegally discharged directly to canals. This proves to be unavoidable, when farmers have used 100 percent of the land area for shrimp ponds, which means no land area left for supporting construction works.

While scientists suggest farmers to improve shrimp ponds after every crop, most farmers only change the water of the ponds after 4 or 5 crops. Local farmers said that they have learned from shrimp hatchery crops that the ponds’ water turns greener after every crop, and it is very good to use the water for the next crops.

When treating the bottom of the ponds, instead of using powdered lime, many farmers use microorganism products designed for toilets. Besides, they not only use chlorine in treating water in the ponds, but also use powerful antiseptics.

In the past, farmers were advised not to breed white leg shrimp, because this was considered a kind of “exotic animal” which may harm the environment, while this variety of shrimp is believed to contain some types of dangerous viruses. Nowadays, farmers are also warned against expanding the white leg shrimp hatchery areas. However, ignoring the advices by scientists, farmers have been unceasingly expanding the white leg shrimp hatchery area.

It is simply because while leg shrimp hatcheries have brought money to farmers.

Hai Son, a farmer in Binh Thoi commune of Binh Dai district, said that he once became “penniless” because of the black tiger shrimp hatchery. In the last two years, he chopped down the 25-year-old coconut plants to have land for white leg shrimp hatchery. Son has earned 100 million dong from the first crop after 65 days of hatchery. Meanwhile, the coconuts trees just brought 500,000 dong a month.

Source: SGTT