Kim Son farmers invest heavily in winter shrimp farming

In the winter season, the weather is cold, the shrimp grow slowly, the risk of disease is high, but because it is difficult to raise, winter shrimp is often scarce and has a very high price. This is an opportunity for shrimp farmers to make big profits, so now, more and more pond owners and farming facilities in the coastal area of Kim Son district are investing heavily in winter shrimp farming.

Huge profit

After the showers caused by the cold front, the sun spread across the aquaculture fields in the coastal areas of Kim Son district. We visited the shrimp farm of Mr. Tran Van Hue's family (Hamlet 2, Kim Dong commune).

With a total area of 10 hectares, Mr. Hue used 3 hectares for farming ponds, the rest for water treatment systems. The farming ponds are all designed in a circular shape, lined with canvas, and have a roof to maintain a stable temperature.

Today, taking advantage of the favorable weather, his family focused on repairing, checking, and adding water to the ponds to prepare to release shrimp from the nursery ponds.

Mr. Hue shared: In the winter crop, the weather is cold, the shrimp grow slowly, so the farming period lasts 4 - 5 months to reach a weight of less than 100 shrimp/kg for harvest. This entails risks due to diseases and environmental changes. However, in return, in the winter crop, the source of shrimp is scarce, so the price is always high at 350 - 380 thousand VND/kg (normally in the year, the price is only 150 - 200 thousand VND/kg), so the profit that winter shrimp brings is very large.

Like last year, on this area, the family earned a billion dong. This year, continuing the success, I have planted 450,000 shrimp seeds, expected to collect from the Qingming Festival onwards.

Kim Son farmers invest heavily in winter shrimp farming — Mr. Tran Van Hue, hamlet 2, Kim Dong commune (wearing a hat) said that his family's ponds have been renovated and are ready to produce a new batch of winter shrimp. Photo: Nguyen Luu

Also one of the pioneers in applying high technology to shrimp farming, Mr. Pham Van Hoc in Hamlet 4, Kim Hai Commune said: Grasping the needs of the market, he spent nearly ten billion VND to invest in building 7 round ponds lined with tarpaulin, each pond has an area of about 450m2, with a cone-shaped roof using a load-bearing cable frame with 3 layers of mesh and nylon cover. Therefore, the ponds are able to resist cold, keep warm in winter, and the temperature always ensures good growth and development for shrimp.

This winter crop, he released about 600,000 shrimp, ensuring that there will be shrimp to sell from around Lunar New Year until the end of April next year.

Regarding his experience in raising winter shrimp, Mr. Hoc said: Currently, the weather has very erratic changes. In winter, but many days the temperature reaches 25 - 29 degrees Celsius, so it is necessary to monitor to lower the net to keep warm or pull the net up to adjust the temperature accordingly. Feeding is the same, depending on the different stages of shrimp development, small stage, feed less meals, large stage, can feed up to 5 meals a day. In addition, it is necessary to increase the addition of vitamin C, minerals, and probiotics to help increase the resistance of shrimp, regularly change the water, ensure a clean environment for shrimp to grow...

Thanks to his solid technical skills, after more than 3 years of production, Mr. Hoc's shrimp farm has continuously achieved success, selling dozens of tons of shrimp to the market each year, earning billions of dong.

Be careful to avoid risks

In fact, the application of advanced technical processes and high technology is increasingly of interest to shrimp farmers in coastal communes of Kim Son district. Many new processes and technologies are applied by farmers such as: Biofloc process, multi-stage farming process, circulating filtration technology farming...

In particular, the area of shrimp farming in closed houses in the winter crop has increased rapidly. If in 2016 there were only a few pilot households, now this area has increased to about 100 hectares. However, experts say that although this form of farming brings high economic efficiency, it also has many potential risks.

Mr. Duong Viet Lynh, one of the pioneers in winter shrimp farming in the Con Thoi area, said that winter shrimp farming faces many risks due to complicated weather conditions, requiring high technical requirements and extensive experience from farmers. No matter how good the technology is, if you are subjective, negligent and do not closely monitor the shrimp, you will lose everything.

Sometimes the water can be left for a month without any problems, but just one rain will change the pH, a monsoon will change the water quality, and the weather in winter keeps changing like that. When the shrimp are weak, the water needs to be changed immediately, but the temperature between the storage tank and the breeding tank is different. If the change is not careful, it will cause thermal shock, environmental shock, and the shrimp crop will be lost.

To help farmers raise livestock safely, before entering the winter crop, the industry has coordinated with localities to organize training for farmers on farming methods, pond treatment, disease prevention, etc.

In addition, regularly take samples to monitor soil and water environment, widely announce the results to serve as a basis for people to have appropriate treatment measures.

Comrade Nguyen Trung Tien, Aquaculture Station, Provincial Aquaculture Department said: Managing ponds in the cold season requires special attention to dissolved oxygen and toxic gas NO2. Alkalinity should be managed at 120 - 150ppm. Water sources added or replaced must be treated cleanly.

Regarding diseases, there are two main diseases: red body virus (SEMBV) and white spot disease. These diseases appear mainly in the cold season when the temperature drops, affecting all stages of shrimp development, but the highest mortality rate usually occurs 1-2 months after stocking. The pathogens are present in the shrimp or penetrate from the outside through water sources and intermediate hosts. These are two diseases caused by viruses, causing high mortality rates, and there is no cure, so strict disease prevention and control is required.

The professional agency also recommends that because the winter shrimp farming season starts from the end of August to February of the following year, it often faces many unfavorable factors and high risks due to complex weather changes, so households should only raise shrimp when they ensure the conditions of facilities. At the same time, it is necessary to increase the application of science, technology and techniques for production to be highly effective.

Nguyen Luu

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