This is a new direction in aquaculture, helping farmers to reduce labor force, increase their income, produce clean food and contribute to improving environment.
Previously, in some aquaculture areas, the abuse of antibiotics, chemicals in disease prevention and treatment, improvement of the pond environment had led to antibiotic residues in aquatic products. This caused environmental degradation and bad effects on human health. For that reason, at the beginning of 2018, the Hanoi Agricultural Extension Center created a model “Carp farming applying river technology in ponds'". The model has showed some following advantages such as reducing water changes, raising productivity of aquaculture in the same farming area, decreasing the usage of antibiotics and chemicals in the aquaculture process and etc. The model has been instigated on the total farming area of 5 hectares. There were 5 households in Quoc Oai, Thuong Tin and Phu Xuyen districts selected to pilot this model. Each farming household were supported 15,000 fish seed, 30% amount of fish feed and 30% quantity of bio product Aqua clear-S for environment treatment.
After methodological training, the selected households implemented the model by fish seed stocking. The survival rate of these fish was over 99%. Fish seed quickly adapted to the river system in ponds. Mr. Phan Nhan Loi (Sai Son commune, Quoc Oai district), one of the involved farming households, shared that applying river technology in pond can raise up fish density to 60 fishes per square meter, increasing by 20 times compared to conventional method of aquaculture in a static pond environment. Fishes grow up faster by 30% than in conventional aquaculture. "This model is highly effective because water constantly move and bring up oxygen level in farming water. It contributes to significantly reduce the amount of toxic gases that may cause fish diseases, help fish move better, digest food faster, and stay healthy. Meanwhile, aquaculture farmers have reduced cost for preventive medicine. This method also lessens the smell of mud in fish product, make fish meat firmer and more delicious" said Mr. Phan Nhan Loi.
According to Mr. Nguyen Ba Trung (Khai Thai commune, Phu Xuyen district), the most efficient advantage of this model is controlling the amount of feed, monitoring farming environment and utilizing fish feces to fertilize crops. After 5 months of farming, farmer can sell commercial fish with high economic efficiency of at least VND 250 million per hectare. It is 1.5 to 2 times higher than conventional aquaculture. Mr. Trung said that he will soon enlarge farming area applying the method of river technology in ponds.
Director of the Hanoi Agricultural Extension Center, Vu Thi Huong, shared that in order to apply the river technology in ponds, farmers need to have a certain level of knowledge, a water surface area of more than 5,000 square meter, and an initial investment of VND 150 million / pond. Full infrastructure facilities, stable power supply for 24/7 operating system of machinery and equipment are also required. It is the fact that application of this model helps farmers more convenient in harvesting. Harvest does not affect the remaining fish in the pond. After harvesting, farmers continue to release new breeding stock into farming ponds without wasting much time for pond bottom processing. It helps to shorten the culturing time.
Director of Department Of Agriculture And Rural Development Hanoi, Mr. Chu Phu My highly appreciated the effectiveness of the model of farming fish using river technology in the pond. He confirmed that he would continue to instruct the Hanoi Agricultural Extension Center to enlarge the model in whole city in future. Mr. Chu Phu My emphasized “Local authorities and functional organization need to coordinate, work together to create a supply chain for consuming products for farmers. This supply chain needs to introduce the consumption points to stabilize output for the product".
Thien Binh