In recent years, the problem of environmental pollution in aquaculture areas has caused many diseases to appear in shrimp, causing great damage to farmers. In the face of this situation, most pond owners use chemicals to treat the situation. The abuse of such chemicals will more or less affect the quality of farmed shrimp.

Therefore, finding a solution to both treat the farming environment and limit diseases while ensuring the quality of farmed shrimp is extremely necessary. In fact, in recent years, some localities in Quang Nam province have applied the method of intercropping with aquatic species so that the farmed objects in the pond can naturally treat the environment quite effectively.

In Cam Chau ward, the largest shrimp farming area of Hoi An city (Quang Nam province), 5 years ago, people mainly raised shrimp in earthen ponds. Over a long period of time, wastewater from shrimp ponds increasingly polluted the farming area. As a result, every year, diseases appeared in the area that killed shrimp and caused economic losses.

About 5 years ago, some pond owners began to apply the method of intercropping shrimp with other species, mainly siganidae or mugil cephalus and crab, which showed quite clear results. With this combined farming, the waste from shrimp is processed by other species in the pond.

Thanks to this, the water environment in the pond is significantly less polluted, and diseases are less likely to occur. Seeing the benefits that this aquaculture method brings, the intercropping model is increasingly widely applied and is now quite popular in Cam Chau ward.

Mr. Tran Bong (born in 1964, residing in An My block, Cam Chau ward, Hoi An city) said that his family has been applying the mixed farming model for 4 years. With an area of 1 hectare, he usually releases about 120,000 shrimp, 4,500 siganidaes and 3,500 crabs. Over the years, he has noticed that these farming species have developed very well, the water quality is always stable, so they rarely suffer damage due to disease.

“This farming method is lower in density than monoculture shrimp farming as before. For example, if only shrimp were raised at a density of about 15 shrimp/m2, now only 4-5 are released. Besides, the farming species do not eat each other, so the loss rate is not significant. In the model, siganidae plays a very important role because it eats all the shrimp waste, limiting water pollution,” said Mr. Bong.

According to the pond owners here, by using this intercropping method, they can greatly reduce the cost of antibiotics and chemicals to treat the pond. In addition, Hoi An City is a tourist city, so the model is also very suitable for building eco-tourism areas. Visitors can both visit and have many choices to enjoy seafood.

Mr. Le Ngoc Len (residing in Cam Chau Ward, Hoi An City), a pond owner applying the intercropping method, added that this model not only limits pollution but also brings quite high economic efficiency. Because, with this farming method, people do not harvest all at once but in batches.

“With shrimp, the larger ones are harvested first, after all the shrimp are harvested, the siganidae will have enough time to sell, and finally the crabs. Because each time a small amount is harvested, the selling price will also be higher than harvesting all at once. Not only that, due to the stable farming environment and less use of antibiotics, the quality of shrimp, fish, and crab in the model is also better, favored by the market," Mr. Len shared.

It is known that recently, the Quang Nam Provincial Agricultural Extension Center also implemented a model of shrimp farming with other aquatic species in Hoi An City and Tam Hoa Commune (Nui Thanh District) and initially showed positive signs.

According to this unit, although in recent years, this model has been applied by people and has been effective, in general, most pond owners have not yet properly implemented technical processes such as: density of breeding, investment in feed, care, management of pond environment, disease prevention are not good, so the efficiency is low and has not been widely replicated.

Mr. Hua Viet Thinh, officer in charge of aquaculture at the Quang Nam Provincial Agricultural Extension Center: "Due to the spontaneous implementation of intercropping, the model needs to be built to have a basis for evaluating its effectiveness and thereby forming a technical process to guide farmers in applying and replicating it in production. The ultimate goal of the intercropping aquaculture models that we are implementing is to help aquaculture be disease and environmental safe, diversify farming objects, effectively use brackish water aquaculture surface, increase income for farmers and fishermen and ensure safe and sustainable production."

According to nongnghiep.vn