Mr. Le Hong Phuong, born in 1975, in Hamlet 6, Binh Thang Commune, Binh Dai District (Ben Tre Province), is a successful pioneer with the idea of converting from 2-stage white-leg shrimp farming to natural commercial catfish farming for many consecutive years with a net profit of over 1 billion VND/year.
Profit of over 1 billion VND/year from the model of raising specialty fish - silver pomfret
Mr. Le Hong Phuong shared: “In 2014, shrimp farming encountered many difficulties and profits were not high, so I researched and found economic benefits from the catfish. From there, I came up with the idea of domesticating and raising commercial catfish.
Initially, I used 1,200 square meters of renovated shrimp pond lined with tarpaulin and tried to raise a few hundred young catfish bought from fishing boats and ships on large rivers.
After 20 months of farming, the catfish grew well and reached a weight of over 2kg/fish, sold for over 150,000 VND/kg and brought in quite high profits.
From the initial profits, Mr. Phuong invested in renovating and expanding 6 shrimp ponds with a total area of 20,000m2 and switched to commercial catfish farming.
He applies the rotational farming method to ensure economic benefits during the year, with 60 thousand baby catfish, the total harvest output reaches 45 tons. In particular, he specially sets aside a pond of about 1,000m2 to domesticate baby catfish, after 7 days release them into the earthen pond.
The stocking density for the catfish has a high survival rate and an average yield of 3 fish/m2. Over the years, Mr. Phuong has effectively maintained and developed the total area for commercial catfish farming, with an annual income of more than 1 billion VND after deducting expenses.
Harvesting commercial catfish at the household of Mr. Le Hong Phuong, farmer in Hamlet 6, Binh Thang Commune, Binh Dai District (Ben Tre Province).
With accumulated experience, Mr. Phuong said: "Bong lau fish is a new farming species, has high economic value, the source of breed is available in nature, the farming technique is also quite simple, similar to catfish, high disease resistance.
The young catfish appear every year from August to November of the lunar calendar. This is also the time when he starts to buy the young fish to domesticate and raise.
Raising silver pomfret fish is also quite simple, mainly concerned with the feeding regime, the pond is 3m deep and clean, airy, and the fan runs regularly to create oxygen because this is a type of fish that lives in the wild and likes deep water flows.
In particular, to ensure the diet of the catfish, not letting food drift ashore or be left over, he came up with a way to use a circular plastic tube to float over a part of the pond area and drop food in there. Every day, feed the fish twice at 6am and 6pm.
Currently, Mr. Phuong has 10,000m2 of ponds for raising commercial catfish during the harvest period, reaching a weight of over 2kg/fish after 20 months of farming, and the remaining 10,000m2 have only been farmed for 12 months, currently the fish weigh about 800 grams to 1kg/fish.
Replicating the model of raising silver pomfret fish
Seeing the practical effectiveness of Mr. Phuong's conversion from 2-phase shrimp farming to commercial catfish farming, many shrimp farming households in the hamlet have learned the farming techniques and successfully converted to commercial catfish farming, bringing high economic efficiency.
A typical example is Mr. Le Huu Duc, in Hamlet 6 of the commune, who has successfully converted 13,000m2 of industrial shrimp farming ponds to commercial catfish farming for more than 5 years now.
Mr. Duc shared: “In 2019, after a period of raising shrimp in two stages with low profits, I learned the techniques and raised silver pomfret fish from Mr. Phuong. Mr. Phuong supported me in finding the breed and how to domesticate the breed before releasing them into the natural pond, and up to now, I have done it myself and achieved high efficiency, earning a stable profit of over 400 million VND/crop.”
Chairman of the Farmers' Association of Binh Thang Commune, Nguyen Hong Khanh, said: "With the benefits brought about by many years of commercial catfish farming, in April 2024, the Farmers' Association of Binh Thang Commune (Binh Dai District, Ben Tre Province) mobilized and gathered households to convert from industrial shrimp farming to commercial catfish farming.
The Association has established a Cooperative Group for raising catfish consisting of 7 members, with a total farming area of over 93.6 hectares with the goal of developing and expanding the commercial catfish farming area in the commune.
Currently, the model of raising silver pomfret fish has been replicated in 12 households in the commune, most of which are households that have converted from shrimp farming. The household with the largest area has 20,000m2 and the household with the smallest area has 5,000m2.
It can be seen that, in the conditions of adapting to climate change and restructuring agriculture, investing in commercial catfish farming is considered a suitable model to help farmers increase their income, contributing to the development of local socio-economy.
Source: https://danviet.vn/ca-bong-lau-ca-dac-san-boi-song-lon-nay-nuoi-thanh-cong-o-ao-dat-tai-ben-tre-ban-150000-dongkg-20240901004307223.htm
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