Aquaculture potential in Kim Thanh

High efficiency

More than 10 years ago, Mr. Vu Van Tinh's family was one of the first households in Dai Duc commune to volunteer to go to the Shrimp lagoon area, adjacent to Lach Tray river, to rent rice fields to invest in and renovate aquaculture ponds.

Mr. Tinh said that at first his family only had 4-5 hectares of rice fields, mainly raising fish such as grass carp, bighead carp, bighead carp... but now the aquaculture area has increased to 1 hectare with many new species such as black carp, red tilapia...

Every year, after deducting expenses, Mr. Tinh's family earns a profit of over 300 million VND. Along with raising fish, Mr. Tinh also produces fish fry to supply to people in the commune and neighboring areas. "The advantage of this area is that it is near Lach Tray River, so the water source is very convenient for aquaculture," Mr. Tinh said.

Mr. Tran Van Pha’s family in Tam Ky commune moved to the conversion area more than 10 years ago. Currently, Mr. Pha’s family has 2.5 hectares specializing in raising freshwater fish such as grass carp, common carp, and bighead carp.

In early 2024, the Provincial Agricultural Extension Center supported Tam Ky commune to build a catfish farming model, and his family boldly accepted 1 sample. Up to now, the model has developed well and is ready for harvest. Mr. Tran Van Pha said: "Every year, my family harvests 2 batches of fish, with a total output of about 80-90 tons. After deducting expenses, my family earns about 500 million VND in profit."

Because the alluvial land can only grow one rice crop per year, many farmers in Lien Hoa commune have left it fallow. To take advantage of the alluvial land, for more than 10 years, Lien Hoa commune has planned and converted nearly 30 hectares of rice fields to concentrated aquaculture. Of which, more than 10 hectares are used to exploit earthworms and clams, the rest are used to raise fish. After stable production, each year this area produces more than 200 tons of fish (more than 20 tons of earthworms and clams alone) with a revenue of nearly 20 billion VND.

The representative of the People's Committee of Lien Hoa commune said that awakening the potential of aquaculture in the coastal and river areas is the top priority of the locality. Depending on the characteristics of each area, the locality encourages farmers to raise suitable aquatic products. For example, in the area adjacent to the river, the area will be created, the land will be improved to exploit the earthworms, clams, in the interior, ponds will be established, fish farming...

Exploiting potential

Ms. Vu Thi Lien, Chairwoman of the Farmers' Association of Kim Thanh district, shared that with the advantages and development potential of aquaculture and exploitation of earthworms and clams, in recent times, the agricultural sector and Farmers' Associations at all levels in the district have actively transferred science and technology to farmers in farming areas; encouraged farmers to diversify farming models and farming objects.

For the area of ​​​​rươi and cay, the district encourages people to improve the soil, clean the soil, dig ditches, drain the water, then sprinkle compost with rice husks to create nutrients, ensure the soil is porous, and create clean food for rươi.

For fish farming areas, localities guide people to switch to high-tech farming models. In addition to traditional fish species, depending on the actual conditions of each locality or farming area, localities add more aquatic products with high economic value such as catfish, crispy carp, red tilapia, etc. into the appropriate farming structure, oriented towards sustainable development.

To effectively exploit the potential of aquaculture, in 2019, Kim Thanh district proposed and received support from the province to invest in building infrastructure for two concentrated aquaculture areas including Tam Ky and Dai Duc.

Localities in the district with large aquaculture areas such as Ngu Phuc, Kim Tan, Kim Dinh, Lai Vu, etc. have also paid attention to investing funds to renovate and repair internal roads to aquaculture areas; support farmers in transferring science and technology; establish aquaculture cooperatives, aquaculture linkage groups, and community agricultural extension groups.

Concentrated aquaculture areas in the district have been put into stable production and exploitation, bringing high economic efficiency.

The entire Kim Thanh district currently has over 600 hectares of aquaculture with about 10 concentrated production areas of 20-50 hectares. The average aquaculture production value reaches over 400 million VND/ha/year.

In the period of 2024 - 2025, Kim Thanh district (Hai Duong) also has 3 concentrated aquaculture projects with an investment of nearly 70 billion VND to build infrastructure. The projects include: Renovation and upgrading of technical infrastructure to serve the development of the production area of ​​​​rươi, clams and aquaculture in the Shrimp pond and Chanh tree pond in Dai Duc commune (nearly 26 billion VND); construction of infrastructure for the concentrated aquaculture area of ​​​​Kim Tan commune (over 27 billion VND); renovation and upgrading of technical infrastructure to serve the development of the production area of ​​​​rươi, clams and aquaculture in Lien Hoa commune (over 16.6 billion VND). The total area of ​​​​the 3 projects is nearly 200 hectares. Along with the local budget, the above projects are also supported by the province with 50% of the cost of building infrastructure for the concentrated aquaculture area.

Currently, the project to invest in building infrastructure for concentrated aquaculture areas in Kim Tan commune is under construction. The remaining projects will be implemented in 2025.

“The synchronous technical infrastructure will help households in the aquaculture area have more conditions to apply scientific and technological advances in production, creating convenience for the circulation of goods, transportation of materials, feed for livestock and consumption of agricultural products. The potential of aquaculture areas will be effectively exploited, from which economic value will certainly increase,” said Mr. Nguyen Van Thang, Vice Chairman of Dai Duc Commune People's Committee.