Presently, the rice-shrimp area in this region amounts to only 120,000ha, the remaining area is mostly for shrimp farming.

Tinh said that specializing in shrimp farming cannot effectively solve the problem of salinization, and threaten the sustainable development of the sector. Application of rice-shrimp model will effectively deal with salinization and contamination, at the same time, improving both rice and shrimp output.

Thanks to favorable weather conditions for shrimp farming and high sales price, shrimp farmers gained high profits in 2009. It is reported that the average output of rice-shrimp model in the Mekong Delta reached 950kilo per ha, generating a profit of VND40 million per ha.

To improve efficiency of the model, shrimp farmers should invest more to increase production, and improve shrimp quality in a bid of meeting requirements for shrimp material from local export processors. (VietFishNews)