Shrimp seeds need firm management

It was instructed by Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phùng Đức Tiến in a convention regarding shrimp seeds management and signing of regulations in performance coordination in Phú Yên.

Deputy Minister Tiến highly evaluated vital role of adult broodstock in producing brackish water shrimps and required firm management in provision, avoiding import dependency.

In his opinion, regions with favorable conditions are required to boostproduction of shrimp seeds. Besides, it is necessary to pay attention to science and technology and select qualified agencies to study and producebrackish water shrimp seed, especially giant tiger shrimp in accordance with each ecological sub-region. The selected shrimp seeds must have disease-free survival and grow quickly.

“There are small production and large production scale with specific standards. In market mechanism, large production scale facilitiesare supposed to place their advertisements on the internet. But what matters is whether or not they satisfy all standards to prevent small production units from competing. Thus, not only do we eliminate small ones but also we build as many as qualified large one with specific standards”, asked Deputy Minister.

According to Directorate of Fisheries, there are around 720 thousand hectares of brackish water shrimps in the country, producing 130 billion shrimp seeds (100 billion white leg shrimps and 30 billion giant tiger shrimps). Around 250 thousand adult broodstocks needed to produce shrimp seeds, with 200 thousand white leg shrimps and 50 thousand giant tiger ones.Adult broodstock are mainly from natural resources, some are imported and some are from local selection.

The country has 2,457 brackish water shrimp seed production facilities, mainly located in Ninh Thuận and Bình Thuận. Total are for brackish water shrimp farming in 2019 expects to reach 725 thousand hectares.However shrimp seed management is not conducted in a chain but divided into sections like research, disease inspection, fishery extension, production management.

In provinces where farmers focus on rearing commercial shrimps, traceability is a problem in stocking season. Directorate of Fisheries is required to coordinate and collect information from agencies to manage quality of shrimp seeds better.