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For years Ta Thi Thanh Thuy worked on a piece of land between the Mekong River and the South China Sea, a region known as the Vietnam Rice Bowl, to grow precious grain.
But Thuy, along with many of his neighbors, has made the exchange of production over the past 10 years – to get shrimp – a change that is unlikely to change as a result of climate change.
As rising seawater significantly boosts the level of salinity in the Mekong Delta region, the trend in shrimp ponds is expected to overstate the country’s seafood industry.
The government has set an ambitious target of more than double the chamber’s exports by 2025 to $ 10 billion by 2025, and Delta farmers have benefited from training sessions and other measures from local authorities, including soft loans.
“Life was very hard for us until we started growing shrimp,” said Thuy, 52. “Many shrimp farmers in the area have been able to build nice houses and open savings accounts in banks.”
The rise of sea water in the delta with the construction of numerous hydroelectric dams up the river further reduces the flow of fresh water.
“We planted rice but we didn’t harvest rice,” said shrimp farmer Ta Thanh Long. “There was a time when rice was still growing when the water was still fresh. But then the water got saltier every year. “
At least a third of the 72 km (45 miles) of coastal rice crop area in Soc Trang province has been affected by increased salinity in recent years, said the former director of the Duong Minh Hoang Provincial Agricultural Promotion Center.
“We have asked local people to switch to crops that are suitable for salting,” Hoang said. “Climate change is affecting everyone here. We have to try to adapt to survive. “
Rising exports
Vietnam is the third largest exporter of rice in the world, but the revenue generated by shrimp exports has surpassed rice profits since 2013 and is growing rapidly.
“The local seafood processors come to buy all the shrimp from the farm,” said Ta Thanh Tung, 44, one of Thuy’s five siblings, all of whom have switched shrimp from rice to farming.
“We heard that shrimp were being exported to Europe, China and the United States.”
Industry analysts expect exports to rise 5 to 10 percent annually over the next 10 years as the country’s total shrimp growth area (mostly in the Delta) increases by 3 to 5 percent annually.
Vietnam’s largest seafood exporter, Minh Phu Seafood Corp., has a larger goal of making the country the world’s largest seafood exporter. More than the recently agreed bilateral and multilateral trade agreements with Minh Phu, it expects $ 2045 million in exports or a quarter of world exports by 2045.
This could help ease the economic pressure on Southeast Asia in the coming years. The World Bank has estimated that there is only climate change to reduce Vietnam’s national income by up to 3.5 percent by 2050.
The prawns are worried
Switching from rice to shrimp, however, has many environmental problems.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), a non-governmental organization in Switzerland, estimates that more than half of the mangrove natural forests that protect against coastal erosion and storm surges have been cleared for shrimp ponds. .
Antibiotics used to treat diseases in shrimp stocks can enter nearby waterways, increasing the risk of chemical contamination [File: Thanh Hue/Reuters]
Aquaculture experts have highlighted the lack of regulatory oversight over the explosion of small shrimp farms, with questions about all the raw materials used in feed and how to manage discharges.
There is particular concern about the use of antibiotics in shrimp stocks to treat diseases. Antibiotics can be spilled, usually spilled, untreated, or returned to waterways in areas that are being treated improperly, which can lead to the risk of chemical contamination in the immediate environment and have a detrimental effect on the food chain.
“While overfishing and dams are being discussed … it doesn’t take into account the malicious nature of invisible contaminants,” said Matt Landos, a veterinary scientist specializing in Australian aquatic animal health. “However, it is clear that they are present and the levels are negative for fisheries productivity.”
In addition, the rise in salt and rising sea levels could lead to the destruction of the Delta that first caused the impact.
A 0.7-meter (2.3-3.3-foot) climb would put about 40 percent of the region underwater, according to Le Anh Tuan Can Tho, a professor at the University of the Environment and Natural Resources.
“The trend of downsizing will continue in the coming years and some parts of the rice fields will have to be turned into aquaculture farms, fruit farms and other crops,” Tuan added.
Shrimp farmers say they are already showing alarming signs of accelerating salinity levels.
“We need to drill the wells deeper for fresh water now,” Thuy added. “We are very concerned that as a result of rising sea water levels, our farms will one day be submerged.”
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