New Freshwater Aquaculture Systems in the Red River Delta of Vietnam:
Evolution of a Key Role in Food Systems and Rural Development
tion, area and number of fruit trees, and
the household’s economic status as well
as their experience in fish production
were determined (see Table 3).
(J). While these indicators are desirable
because E, F, G, H, I, and J are ade-
quate records and over time to indicate
the degree of variability in the perfor-
mance of the subject farm, they do not
in and of themselves provide any basis
for comparing a farm's income levels
to those of other farms. If whole-farm
comparison is introduced at this point,
the results are summarized in Table 2.
Thus, fish farms would be compared
in terms of the measures E, F, G, H, I,
J with other farms in the village or area
having a similar size, soil, water supply,
etc. but not necessarily the same mix of
activities.
It was reported by the house-
holds with animal/fish production
(AF systems) and commercially inten-
sive fish production (FS) systems that
their fish cultures in the past origi-
nated with the traditional homestead
VAC model which, to a certain extent,
has disappeared. However, the modern
VAC and other systems still exist due
to the number of farmers who believe
strongly that the current VAC mod-
el has been restructured by increasing
and balancing its economic scale level
of components, namely fish pond size,
orchards, and animal husbandry. VAC
households are, thus, not characterized
as aquaculture ventures. On the other
hand, most farmers belonging to AF
or FS household groups answered that
they were able to develop their fish pro-
duction thanks to the accumulation of
knowledge and experience in aquacul-
ture, as well as capital investments from
establishing the traditionally small VAC
model.
III. Research Results
and Discussion
A Key Role of Aquaculture in
the Food Production System
T
o understand the context of
aquaculture development, group
discussions were used to iden-
tify the basic features and characteris-
tics of the existing freshwater aquacul-
ture production systems in the survey
areas. The findings showed that fish
farms usually have three components:
(1) the homestead and perennial trees
(fruit orchards created by pond dikes),
(2) the pond, and (3) the rice field. The
livestock, fruit orchards, and the pond
are usually located together. The home-
stead area consists of livestock, fruit
orchards, vegetables, and other trees
which are located close to the residence,
with an average area of around 433 m 2 .
In addition, the link between the com-
ponents, the scale of livestock produc-
The benefits of aquaculture in
food systems within the context of ru-
ral development relates to health and
nutrition, employment, income, the
reduction of vulnerability, and farm
sustainability. In the municipal survey,
the freshwater aquaculture systems
provide high-quality animal protein
and essential nutrients, especially for
nutritionally vulnerable groups such as
pregnant and lactating women, infants,
and pre-school children. In particular,
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