New Freshwater Aquaculture Systems in the Red River Delta of Vietnam:
Evolution of a Key Role in Food Systems and Rural Development
greater farm specialization and market
orientation, aquaculture enterprises
could become a dominant feature. This
supposes a key role of aquaculture in
food production systems in the future.
In populated rural regions like
Hai Duong, extensive to semi-inten-
sive aquaculture systems are prevalent
and produce the bulk of aquaculture
products. Extensive farming usually in-
volves unsophisticated methods, relies
on natural food, and has a low input to
output ratio. As production intensity
increases, fish are deliberately stocked
and the natural food supply is enhanced
by using organic and inorganic fertiliz-
ers, industrial feeds, and low-cost feed
supplements derived from agricultural
by-products. The survey results showed
extensive and semi-intensive (stock-
ing rate less than 1 fish/m 2 ) aquacul-
ture production systems in the region.
However, based on the aquaculture
integration to agriculture patterns, or
IAA system, the structure of aquacul-
ture production systems is determined
by analyzing the household survey. The
number of households applying the im-
proved VAC system accounted for 23%,
the animal/fish (AF) production system
made up of 43%, the largest percentage,
and 34% for the commercially intensive
fish production (FS) system (Figure 2).
Classification and Structure
of Freshwater Aquaculture
Production Systems
M
isui and Horiuchi (2006) in-
dicated that the Vietnamese
government misuses a cri-
terion of agricultural sales that would
be suitable in developed countries like
Japan and misclassifies VAC farming
systems in the Red River Delta. These
farming systems have 14 types of
farming enterprise combinations, i.e.
VAC, VA, VC, AC, V, A, C, VAC+rice,
VA+rice, VC+rice, AC+rice, V+rice,
A+rice, and C+rice. The systems can
be classified by many optimum criteria,
the most appropriate of which in VAC
farming systems is agricultural income,
classified by self-sufficient farm house-
holds in Vietnam.
Figure 2. The Structure of Freshwater Aquaculture
Production Systems in Hai Duong
Source: survey, 2015.
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