In Soc Trang, raising a key animal species has entered a bustling season, why do people say it's better to be slow and steady?

Currently, salinity in inland farming areas in the Mekong Delta region has reached a suitable threshold for stocking.

The weather is no longer as hot as the first rains of the season appear widely in the Mekong Delta. Although shrimp prices are not very high, if farming achieves productivity, farmers still make a profit. This is also the time for shrimp farmers to start releasing seeds for the 2024 farming season.

After 1/3 of the 2024 brackish water shrimp crop, by mid-May, the season atmosphere in key shrimp farming areas in the Mekong Delta began to become more bustling.

There are many reasons why this year's shrimp crop is late, but mainly because of the severe heat, many deep inland areas do not have enough salinity to stock the shrimp, and especially because diseases appeared quite early in many farming areas at the beginning of the year.

All of the above factors have made farmers hesitate and agents hesitate to invest in farmers because the risks are still too great.

By mid-May, according to reports from the agricultural sector of coastal provinces in the Mekong Delta, the area for releasing brackish water shrimp is still quite slow, especially in semi-intensive and intensive farming models.

In Tra Vinh, only 13,732 hectares of giant tiger prawns and 4,058 hectares of whiteleg shrimp have been stocked, with a total harvest of over 23,000 tons. Soc Trang also has a fairly low farming area, with only nearly 13,742 hectares being stocked as of May 13; of which 11,002 hectares are whiteleg shrimps and the rest are giant tiger prawns.

Although only more than 2,000 hectares of whiteleg shrimp have been harvested, Soc Trang has had a yield of nearly 14,400 tons and the remaining shrimp area of ​​about 11,444 hectares is in the stage of 30 to under 60 days old.

According to Master Quach Thi Thanh Binh - Head of Soc Trang Fisheries Department, the shrimp farming situation at the beginning of the year was quite difficult, but the areas that overcame it almost all had very high productivity. That is also the reason why the farming and harvesting area of ​​Soc Trang is quite low but the output is quite high.

Shrimp prices in the Mekong Delta provinces have improved, although not much, but it has also encouraged shrimp farmers to be more bold in releasing seeds in the 2024 farming season. Photo: TICH CHU

In the provinces of Ca Mau, Kien Giang, Bac Lieu... except for the extensive and improved extensive farming areas that have almost completely stopped, the intensive and super-intensive farming areas are only a few thousand hectares.

Shrimp farming area is concentrated on large farms and households with sufficient financial, technical and technological resources to dare to stock the entire area, while other households farming with high-density tarpaulin-lined ponds only dare to stock a part of the area as an exploratory measure, waiting for the weather to stabilize again before stocking the entire area.

According to farmers, the reason is that this year's farming season is very difficult, partly due to the hot weather, partly due to the disease appearing quite early on a large scale, while in the first 3 months of 2024, shrimp prices of most sizes were lower than the same period in 2023 and have only increased slightly since mid-April.

In Soc Trang, shrimp batches released from late 2023 or early 2024 have all yielded relatively good yields, although the initial stage was quite difficult due to the impact of the epidemic.

Some farms with several hundred hectares, such as Sao Ta Food Joint Stock Company, have finished harvesting and are renovating ponds to prepare for a new crop this May.

Although the harvest was quite large and the yield was quite high, Mr. Vo Van Phuc - General Director of Vietnam Clean Seafood Joint Stock Company still said that this was the farming season that the company had to face the most difficulties, especially EHP and TPD diseases.

Mr. Phuc shared: "Every year, this first crop always has a very high success rate, but this year, for some reason, the epidemic came very early and in large numbers, so it was very difficult to overcome it and have a relatively good harvest."

Currently, the price of shrimp of some sizes has increased slightly again, along with the heat is no longer severe, the salinity is more stable, so according to forecasts, the progress of stocking will start to increase sharply from mid-May because most of the farming area has been renovated.

However, there are still two issues that can greatly affect the plan and progress of this year's farming season, which are the lack of capital of farmers and the storm situation in the coming time.

Mr. Nguyen Huu Anh - Director of the High-Tech Shrimp Farming Cooperative in Bac Lieu province said that farmers are currently lacking capital, including high-tech farmers, so they are in great need of credit support because agents are currently investing very limitedly in farmers, due to not having recovered all outstanding debts from previous farming seasons.

Mr. Ma Chi Tho - Head of the Economic Department of Vinh Chau town (Soc Trang) also said that the lack of capital is quite common, especially for small shrimp farmers and that the unfavorable weather conditions at the beginning of the year have made the farming progress slower than planned. However, the progress of seed stocking is currently more positive, so the farming area will be significantly improved in the coming time.

According to the forecast of the Center for Meteorology and Hydrology, after the end of the heat wave caused by El Nino, the weather will change to La Nina, so from the middle of the year onwards, storms will be more frequent and the probability of this pattern occurring is very high.

Thus, it can be seen that the upcoming shrimp farming season will most likely fall into a period of heavy rain and storms, with strong environmental fluctuations, making shrimp susceptible to stress, leading to disease and damage.

This is something shrimp farmers are very worried about, especially small-scale farmers following traditional models. Therefore, the functional departments of the provinces continuously update weather, meteorological and hydrological reports to inform farmers, along with necessary recommendations.

This year's shrimp crop was predicted to be very difficult even before it began, and in the first four months of the year, the first difficulties have gradually appeared, so farmers' traditional cautiousness in the "better slow and steady" way of thinking is absolutely necessary to ensure the crop is as successful as expected.

Source: https://danviet.vn/o-soc-trang-nuoi-mot-loai-vat-chu-luc-da-vao-vu-soi-dong-sao-nguoi-ta-noi-tha-cham-ma-chac-20240521223224917.htm