From being used to raising traditional grass carp and common carp that require a lot of investment in feed and breed, recently, some farmers in the province have approached the model of raising giant freshwater prawns. This type of aquatic product is easy to raise, low investment cost, easy to consume, and has high economic value.
Low cost, easy to raise
On the days leading up to the Lunar New Year of Giap Thin, we went to Da Thuong village, Lang Phong commune, Nho Quan district to visit the giant freshwater prawn farming model of Mr. Le Nhu Quynh. After a series of days of severe cold, today, taking advantage of the sunshine, Mr. Quynh's family organized a shrimp harvest to sell to traders from Quang Ninh to buy and export to China. Dozens of people shouted and shouted to each other, pulling the nets loudly in a field along the Hoang Long river, heavy baskets of shrimp were brought ashore one by one to the joy of the owner.
Mr. Quynh confided: The temperature has been low for the past few days, my family was very worried because we didn't see any shrimp floating around, we were afraid they would all die, but today we are very happy to have such a large harvest. This proves that giant freshwater prawns have good vitality. The same goes for harvesting, we don't necessarily have to harvest all at once, we can fish every day to catch big prawns to sell, the remaining prawns in the pond are still growing normally.
It is known that Mr. Quynh has been involved in aquaculture for many years, but in the past, he only released traditional fish such as grass carp, bighead carp, bighead carp, common carp, etc. In recent years, production has not been very favorable due to the sudden increase in feed prices, while the output products are difficult to sell and the selling price is low. In 2022, he piloted the release of a small amount of giant freshwater prawns into the fish pond. Seeing the high efficiency, this year he decided to switch to specialized shrimp farming. On an area of 1.6 hectares, he released 100,000 shrimp fry. Thanks to the Provincial Agricultural Extension Center's support of some seeds, bran, and enthusiastic instructions on disease prevention techniques and care for the shrimp throughout the farming process. Therefore, the survival rate is high, after 6 months of farming, the shrimp have now reached a size of 20 shrimp/kg, with an estimated output of about 2 tons. With a selling price of 200,000 VND/kg, after deducting expenses, Mr. Quynh earned a profit of nearly 200 million VND.
"In addition to being easy to raise, raising giant freshwater prawns also has the advantage of not requiring much care, and not having to rely heavily on industrial feed sources because we can take advantage of available feed sources to supplement the prawns, such as: rice bran, trash fish, snails..." - Mr. Quynh shared.
Like Mr. Quynh, Mr. Dinh Van Tinh is a veteran farmer in low-lying aquaculture in Gia Minh commune, Gia Vien district. However, in recent years, due to the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic and high prices of bran, production has encountered many difficulties. Wondering what to switch to to be successful? Finally, after many calculations, he decided to convert part of the fish pond to raising giant freshwater prawns.
Mr. Tinh shared: I chose to raise giant freshwater prawns because this is a high-value crop with a favorable output market. In particular, it makes good use of natural food sources, the cost of seeds and feed is only 1/3 of that of raising fish. In 2022, I piloted the release of 15,000 seeds into a grass carp pond, the total cost of seeds and feed was only about 40 million VND but I sold 90 million VND, earning a profit of 50 million VND. This year, the Center for High-Tech Agriculture and Trade Promotion (Department of Agriculture and Rural Development) provided a reputable source of seeds and gave me methodical and scientific instructions on farming techniques, so I confidently released 50,000 seeds. Up to this point, it has not been harvested yet, but the output and value will definitely be higher than last year.
Potential for replication
When asked about their plans for 2024, both Mr. Quynh and Mr. Tinh said they would continue to use giant freshwater prawns as their main crop; at the same time, they would transfer techniques to other aquaculture households in the district, thereby creating the premise to build a shrimp farming cooperative to facilitate consumption.
From a professional perspective, Mr. Pham Duy Phu, Deputy Director of the Center for High-Tech Agriculture and Trade Promotion (Department of Agriculture and Rural Development) said: Giant freshwater prawn is an aquatic product with high nutritional value, delicious, low in calories, very good for health, and is very popular with consumers. Not as difficult to raise as giant freshwater prawn or whiteleg shrimp, giant freshwater prawn can live well in both freshwater and brackish water areas. Not only that, giant freshwater prawn can also be raised in rotation, intercropped with rice or monoculture with good results. In particular, this is an omnivorous aquatic product, it can make good use of many foods available in nature such as protozoa, polychaetes, crustaceans, insects, mollusks, algae, organic debris... so the cost of feed for raising giant freshwater prawn is much lower than that of raising fish.
"The giant freshwater prawn is a promising aquaculture species to develop in localities in the coming time, especially in areas producing one rice crop and one fish crop such as in Nho Quan, Gia Vien districts and Tam Diep city, aiming at natural production, adapting to climate change, stabilizing and increasing farmers' income" - Comrade Pham Duy Phu expressed his opinion.
However, to successfully raise giant freshwater prawns, the Center for High-Tech Agriculture and Trade Promotion recommends: Farmers need to choose seed sources from reputable production facilities and should nurture the seeds before releasing them into ponds and fields. The best time for raising is from March to October every year to avoid the effects of cold temperatures in winter. If you still want to raise them over winter, you must have a pond with a depth of 2-3 m. During the pond renovation process, you must pay close attention to killing miscellaneous fish, predatory fish and other pests to avoid loss. In addition, there are two basic diseases in giant freshwater prawns: shrimp with algae and black gills, caused by poor nutrition, poor water quality, and dirty bottom. The simple solution is to change the water, add lime and increase nutritious food.
Thus, with a new potential farming object like giant freshwater prawn, in the coming time, each locality needs to choose a suitable model and promptly organize production, invest in infrastructure, and provide technical guidance to farmers to ensure productivity and product quality. In addition, an equally important issue is to have a solution to solve the output of the product. Because most giant freshwater prawns are currently only consumed fresh in the domestic market and have not been brought to processing plants for export.
Article and photos: Nguyen Luu
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