Locals harvest giant river prawn in Dong Thap province’s Tam Nong district (Photo: danviet.vn)Dong Thap (VNA) - The Dong Thap provinceDepartment of Agriculture and Rural Development will earmark over 2,000hectares of land for farming giant river prawns, most of it in Tam Nong, ThanhBinh, and Cao Lanh districts and Hong Ngu town.
Ho Thanh Dung, deputy director of the department, said since2013, when the land available for breeding these prawns peaked at 1,133hectares, yielding over 1,000 tonnes, the area had been decreasing.
Last year it had fallen to just 248ha, yielding around 77tonnes.
The reason for the drop is climate change due to which therehave been floods and worsening water quality, affecting the growth of theprawns.
In recent years seaside provinces such as Tra Vinh, KienGiang and Ben Tre have undertaken intensive farming of giant river prawn withlow cost and high output, leading to lower demand for the crustacean from DongThap.
To facilitate prawn farming in Dong Thap, the province hasproposed several policies such as creating co-operative groups, linking farmerswith suppliers, production facilities and distribution channels, setting upresearch into farming techniques and technologies and reducing the use ofchemicals.
Last year it implemented crop rotation with farmers growingrice after harvesting prawns. The organic waste from the giant river prawns atthe bottom of the lake greatly increases soil fertility and rice output. - VNA
VNA
