New Freshwater Aquaculture Systems in the Red River Delta of Vietnam:
Evolution of a Key Role in Food Systems and Rural Development
2,613/year). However, the difference
between the total household income
among the groups was not statistically
significant. On-farm income includes
revenues from various enterprises such
as cultivating rice, raising livestock, fish
production, growing non-rice crops,
and growing fruit trees, which all create
an annual cash income for the farmers.
Any enterprises that were just for per-
sonal consumption or recreation, but
not for earnings, were ignored in this
study because they do not contribute
to the farmers’ income. Similar to the
results for whole-household income,
the Kruskal–Wallis tests did not find
any significant differences between the
groups in terms of the income of farm-
ing enterprises. However, the calcula-
tions of the average income from vari-
ous sources gave a general impression
of income differences among the three
groups. At the whole-farm level, the AF
farmers appeared to obtain the highest
returns from their farming, although
the difference in terms of gross house-
hold income was not significant at the
time of the study. This result is consis-
tent with the assumption that aquacul-
ture development aimed to improve the
situation of the food and foodstuffs, and
the diversity of income sources for poor
households in rural communities (Ta-
ble 8).
per sao). Chemical, lime, and inorgan-
ic fertilizers accounted for 5% of the
financial input. The VAC farms’ Gross
Margin (8.4 mill VND) and Family
Farm Available Income (7.4 mill VND)
of fish gained much better than those of
from AF and FS systems. These results
implied that the fish production sys-
tems benefited through integration by
becoming more effective and better at
resource-utilization. The integration of
the aquaculture systems would be A-C
or V-A-C.
Contribution of Freshwater
Aquaculture to the Food System
and Rural Development
T
aking aquaculture’s contribution
into account when discussing
food systems and rural devel-
opment, it is, perhaps, not surprising
that aquaculture production has grown
rapidly since the 1980s and has been the
fastest growing food production sector
in the survey areas for more than three
decades. In 1996, aquaculture produc-
tion contributed approximately 2.7%
and in 2014, 12% of the total gross pro-
duction of agriculture in the province.
The average gross income of
households in which off-farm income
was excluded (from 6/2014 to 6/2015)
ranged from 10,000,000 VND/year
(US$ 500/year) to 333,530,000 VND/ IV. Conclusion
year (US$ 15,000/year). This figure for
the FS group was 72,136,000 VND/year
ver time, freshwater aquacul-
(US$ 3,200/year), less than that of the
ture production systems are
AF group, 98,430,000 VND/year (US$
dynamic and are subject to
4,406/year), but higher than those of the economic and environmental chang-
VAC group, 53,586,000 VND/year (US$ es. The development of aquaculture in
O
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