Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development: Analysis of Technical, Economic and Social Indicators and Assessment of Technical Adoption Rate in Clam Aquaculture Households - MS10 " pot

Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development COLLABORATION FOR AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT (CARD) 027/05 VIE project Development of clam culture for improvement and diversification of livelihoods of the poor coastal communities in Central Vietnam MS 10: Project Validation Report Analysis of Technical, Economic and Social Indicators and Assessment of Technical Adoption Rate in Clam Aquaculture Households Nguyen Xuan Suc 1 , Dinh Van Thanh 1 , Chu Chi Thiet 2 , and Martin S Kumar 3 1 Center for Aquaculture Engineering and Technology Transfer Dinh Bang - Tu Son - Bac Ninh, Vietnam 2 Aquaculture Research Sub Institute for North Central Vietnam Cua Lo - Nghe An, Vietnam 3 South Australia Research and Development Institute PO Box 120, Henley Beach, South Australia 5022 4 March 2010 Aquaculture Research Sub Institute for North Central Vietnam South Australia Research and Development Institute Milestone Report Project Validation 2 Table of Contents List of tables 3 List of figures 4 Acknowledgment 4 I. INTRODUCTION 4 1.1 Introduction 4 1.2 Objective of this study 5 1.2.1 General objective 5 1.2.2 Specific objectives 5 II. STUDY METHODOLOGY 6 2.1 Study location 6 2.2 Data collection 6 2.3 Data analysis 7 III. RESULT AND DISCUSION 7 3.1. Household information 7 3.1.1 Information of respondent 7 3.1.2 Information of household 8 3.2 Clam culture activities 12 3.2.1 Clam culture technical indicators 12 3.2.2. Clam culture economic indicator 17 3.3. Factors influencing and being influenced by clam culture 24 3.3.1 Social impact of clam culture development 24 3.3.2 Influence of clam culture development on other production activities 25 3.3.3 Influence of other activities on clam culture production 25 3.3.4 Effect of clam culture on the environment 26 3.3.5 Effect from the environment on clam culture 26 3.3.6 Constraints to clam culture development 27 3.4. Technical adoption rate of trained households of pond clam culture 28 3.4.1 Pond selection 28 3.4.2 Pond preparation 29 3.4.3 Seed stocking 29 3.4.4 Algal production (live feed) and pond management 30 3.4.5 Harvesting and preservations 30 3.5 Technical adoption rate of trained farmers of inter-tidal clam culture 31 3.5.1 Site selection 31 3.5.2 Site preparation 31 3.5.3 Seed stocking 32 3.5.4 Monitoring and management 33 3.5.6 Harvesting and preservations 33 5. PROJECT IMPACT 34 6. CONCLUSION 36 7. RECOMMENDATIONS 36 8. REFERENCES 37 Appendix A: 38 Appendix B: 42 Appendix C 45 Aquaculture Research Sub Institute for North Central Vietnam South Australia Research and Development Institute Milestone Report Project Validation 3 List of tables Table 1: Age, gender and education information of survey respondent in the project site 8 Table 2: Household size and gender of household member in the study provinces 8 Table 3: Labor force of clam culture farm and labor involve in clam aquaculture 9 Table 4: Information on household occupation in the study area 10 Table 5: Clam aquaculture experience of household in the project area 10 Table 6: Clam culture technical training, quality and rate of applying in the study area 11 Table 7: Type and area of land holding of farmers in the study region 12 Table 8: Land used in clam aquaculture and water sources status in the research provinces .12 Table 9: Clam aquaculture area of clam farmers and tidal effect depth in the region 13 Table 10: Clam seed sources of household in the study provinces 14 Table 11: Seed stocking size and stocking density 15 Table 12: Harvesting size and productivity of clam culture 16 Table 13: Clam selling type and clam for family consumption 16 Table 14: Cost of area repair, fencing and watch tower, casting/stocking, watch/guard from pouching, and land tax/fee 18 Table 15: Seed, fertilizer and lime costs of clam culture in the project provinces 19 Table 16: Hire labor and harvesting costs 20 Table 17: Total cost, total income, benefit and benefit-cost ratio of clam farms 22 Table 18: Capital sources, amount of borrowed capital and interest rate 22 Table 19: Household income sources of farmers in the study area 23 Table 20: The social impact of clam aquaculture development (%) 24 Table 21: Influence of clam aquaculture development on other production activities (%) 25 Table 22: Influence of other activities on clam aquaculture production (%) 26 Table 23: The effect of clam aquaculture on the environment (%) 26 Table 24: The effect from the environment on clam aquaculture (%) 27 Table 25: Constraints to clam aquaculture development (%) 28 Table 26: Adoption rate of pond clam farmers on pond selection parameters 29 Table 27: Adoption rate of pond clam farmers on pond preparation parameters 29 Table 28: Adoption rate of pond clam farmers on seed stocking parameters 29 Table 29: Adoption rate of pond clam farmers on algal production and clam pond management parameters 30 Table 30: Adoption rate of tidal clam farmers on tidal site selection parameters 31 Table 31: Adoption rate of tidal clam farmers on tidal preparation parameters 32 Table 32: Adoption rate of tidal clam farmers on seed stocking parameters 32 Table 33: Adoption rate of tidal clam farmers on tidal area monitoring and management 33 Table 34: Adoption rate of tidal clam farmers on harvesting and product preservation 34 Aquaculture Research Sub Institute for North Central Vietnam South Australia Research and Development Institute Milestone Report Project Validation 4 List of figures Figure 1: Vietnamese provincial map indicating the location of the six project provinces 6 Figure 2: Diagram of clam seed marketing channel 14 Figure 3: Diagram of clam marketing channel in the study area 17 Figure 4: Diagram indicating rate of input contribution of tidal clam culture 20 Figure 5: Diagram indicating rate of input contribution of pond clam culture 20 Acknowledgment Authors would like to thank the following organizations and persons helped the research team during study conducted: • Collaboration for Agriculture and Rural Development (CARD), which supported financial for this study. • The Aquaculture Departments and the Agriculture and Fisheries Extension Centers of Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Thua Thien Hue provinces, which provided the secondary data for this research. • The clam demonstration farms and the clam culture households in the project provinces who are respondents of the survey, who were supplied the data for this study. I. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduction Vietnam’s fisheries sector has grown rapidly over the last 20 years since the adoption of the innovation age in the late 1980’s which implemented market oriented reforms. Foreign investment and trade liberalisation facilitated an eight-fold increase in the volume of exports of fisheries products between 1990 and 2002, which was supported by changes in policies and attitudes towards the private sector and reforms in the management and operations of state enterprises (Dung 2003). In 2002, fisheries was Vietnam’s third largest sector in terms of total export revenue at just over US$2 billion – a 13% increase from the previous year and contributing 11% of Vietnam’s national export earnings (MoFI 2003). It is estimated that 3.4 million people (approximately 4% of the population) derive their income directly from aquaculture and capture fisheries (MoFI 2006). However, the total number of people whose livelihood is dependent on the fisheries and other aquatic resources for subsistence is larger. Aquaculture has grown rapidly in Vietnam in the past two decades and contributing for greater than 40% in volume of total seafood export. Aquaculture in Vietnam is generally performed as family-scale operations characterized by low-input use and requirements (Dung 2003). Growth in export value and diversification is having a positive and stabilizing effect Aquaculture Research Sub Institute for North Central Vietnam South Australia Research and Development Institute Milestone Report Project Validation 5 on Vietnamese households, especially in terms of employment, income and skills growth. However, due to disease outbreak resulting from a consequence of water deterioration, especially in the shrimp farming system, this is resulting in a reduction in aquaculture production. In this context, a trend to diversity culture species needs to be considered. Expansion and diversification of culture system areas can surely boost production and market value. This re-enforces the Vietnamese government’s plan for a total production of 50,000 tones of mollusk to be produced annually by the year 2010 (MoFI master plan, 2006). Mollusk is a promising activity as it has a high total value despite a low production rate. Clam culture being the most profitable consideration. However, clam culture has the disadvantage that it relies mainly on the capture of seed from nature. Seed production and integration culture systems have been poorly investigated. Currently, farmers are making total use of a flat tidal zone for clam culture. In some north and central provinces, stocking of hard clam seed in shallow inshore waters has provided a low cost alternative income to the poor fisher households. Under the financial support from Vietnamese government and Australian Agency for International Development, a project titled “Development of clam culture for improvement and diversification of livelihoods of the poor coastal communities in Central Vietnam” was jointly undertaken by Aquaculture Research Sub Institute for North Central Vietnam (ARSINC) and South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI). This report is one of the outputs which validate the project by presenting the socio-economic, technical evaluation, clam culture influence, and technical adoption rate of clam households. In addition, the results of this report were also compared with the “Baseline Survey” report wherever it was possible. 1.2 Objective of this study 1.2.1 General objective The overall objective of this study is to assess the technological, social and economic impacts and technical adoption rate of clam aquaculture households in the six north central provinces of Vietnam. 1.2.2 Specific objectives • To compare production performance of clam trials and trained households with the Baseline study conducted at the beginning of the project; • To evaluate the economic and social impacts of project at the household level in the six project’s provinces; and • To assess the technical adoption rates of tidal and pond clam culture households in the project areas. Aquaculture Research Sub Institute for North Central Vietnam South Australia Research and Development Institute Milestone Report Project Validation 6 II. STUDY METHODOLOGY 2.1 Study location This investigation was conducted in six provinces situated in North Central Vietnam, includes: Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Thua Thien - Hue (Fig. 1). Figure 1: Vietnamese provincial map indicating the project locations 2.2 Data collection Primary and secondary data collections were carried out for the preparation of this report. Two semi-structured standardized questionnaires (appendices A and B) were used for collecting the primary data. The first questionnaire ((appendices A) was used for the collection of data on technical, socio-economic status of clam households in the six provinces where project implementation (clam culture development) was carried out. Two types of clam farming systems were surveyed including inter-tidal clam aquaculture and pond clam aquaculture households. The questionnaire focused on five sections: information about the household, land and water holding by households, information of clam culture, information on family income sources, and factors influencing and being influenced by clam culture. The second questionnaire was used to survey data on technical adoption rate. This questionnaire was used for both types of tidal and pond clam culture farms. This Thanh Hoa N g h e An H a Tinh Q uan g Binh Q uan g T ri Travel rout during 20-25 August 2005 for the project developmentand stakeholder/ beneficiary analysis Thanh Hoa Nghe An Ha Tinh Quang Binh Quang Tri Thua Thien-Hue PROJECT PROVINCES Aquaculture Research Sub Institute for North Central Vietnam South Australia Research and Development Institute Milestone Report Project Validation 7 questionnaire had two main parts. Part one was used to collect information on clam culture pond households with seven subsections indicating pond selection criteria; pond cleaning; seed selection and stocking; algal production and pond management; harvesting and preservation; preparing production plan, data recording and financial analysis; and household suggestions. Part two was used for the collection of information on clam culture by tidal households involving seven subsections which include: site selection; site preparation; seed stocking; monitoring and management; harvesting and preservation; production plan making, data recording and financial analysis; and household suggestions Secondary in formations were collected from published and unpublished reports and data gathered from fisheries departments. 2.3 Data analysis Collected data and information were validated and assessed. Data was also classified and analyzed based on types of clam culture (tidal and pond clam culture) in all provinces at the project location. EXCEL software was used to analysis data. Descriptive statistics on the variables of mean, min., max., percentage were calculated to describe the clam farming systems and assesses technical adoption rate of trained clam households. III. RESULT AND DISCUSION This section is divided into five sub-sections; general household information (Section 3.1), clam culture activities (Section 3.2), factors influencing and being influenced by clam culture (Section 3.3), technical adoption rate of trained households of pond clam culture (Section 3.4), and technical adoption rate of trained households of inter-tidal clam culture (Section 3.5). Data of this survey is compared with the data given in the Baseline report at the beginning of the project stage; however, the comparison is only made wherever it was possible. 3.1. Household information 3.1.1 Information of respondent The information about age, gender and education of clam culture farmers in the project site are presented in the Table 1. The tidal and pond clam culture respondents were from a wide age group. The average age of respondents in whole region was 47.9 years and ranged between 28 to 56 years. There was not much difference in average age noticed from the Baseline survey (45.2 years). The difference in respondents age of tidal (48.2 years) and pond (47.7 years) clam culture groups are not significant. The pond clam culture is relatively a new activity which was taken-up after this CARD project implementation. Male respondent occupied a major proportion of both tidal and pond clam culture groups accounting for 95.9 and 94.2 %, respectively. Only 4.7% of respondents are female and this percentage ranged between 4.1% (tidal culture group) and 5.8% (pond culture group). Aquaculture Research Sub Institute for North Central Vietnam South Australia Research and Development Institute Milestone Report Project Validation 8 In the study area, the entire clam culture respondents (farmers) were literate. In general, there were 57.9% of respondents that had completed a secondary school level of education. The figures of tidal and pond clam culture group were 59.8 and 55.1%, respectively. Respondents with a high school level of education were the second largest proportion with an average of 34.2% in all provinces and farming systems ranged between 33.1% and 38.1% of tidal and pond clam culture groups respectively. With regard to other respondent education levels such as primary school and vocational levels were low in percentage. Table 1: Age, gender and education information of survey respondent in the project site Indicator Tidal culture Pond culture Total Mean 48.2 47.7 47.9 Min 32.0 28.0 28.0 Age (year) Max 54.0 56.0 56.0 Male 95.9 94.2 95.3 Gender (%) Female 4.1 5.8 4.7 Primary school 6.5 5.5 6.3 Secondary school 59.8 55.1 57.9 High school 33.1 38.1 34.2 Vocational 2.6 1.2 1.6 University 0.0 0.0 0.0 Education (%) Illiterate 0.0 0.0 0.0 3.1.2 Information of household 3.1.2.1 Household members The data about household size and household member’s gender are presented in the Table 2. The household size averaged 5.6 persons per farm. There was no significant difference in household size between tidal culture and pond culture groups (5.4 compared to 4.9 persons per household, respectively). Numbers of male and female averaged 2.7 and 2.9 persons per farm for the project area respectively. Table 2: Household size and gender of household member in the study provinces Indicator Tidal culture Pond culture Total Mean 5.4 5.9 5.6 Min. 2.0 3.0 2.0 Total (person) Max. 6.0 7.0 7.0 Mean 2.5 2.8 2.7 Min 1.0 2.0 1.0 Male (person) Max 4.0 4.0 4.0 Mean 2.9 3.1 2.9 Min 1.0 3.0 1.0 Female (person) Max 3.0 4.0 4.0 Aquaculture Research Sub Institute for North Central Vietnam South Australia Research and Development Institute Milestone Report Project Validation 9 3.1.2.2 Household labor The information on the household labor force and labor required in clam aquaculture is presented in the Table 3. There was no significant difference in the total labor force of households, or gender for the labor member ratio between tidal and pond clam culture. On average for all six study provinces, the number of laborers per household was 3.4, of which male and female laborers were 2.2 and 1.2 persons, respectively. For clam aquaculture labor, the numbers of family members involved in tidal clam aquaculture was higher than that in pond culture (2.8 compared to 1.8 labors per farm). Calculated labor of both tidal and pond clam culture was 2.3 persons per household, ranging between 1 and 4 laborers per household. This is less than the Baseline survey (2.7 labors per farm). However, at the time of the Baseline survey, only tidal clam culture was being practiced in the project area. This report is prepared based on the information collected on both pond and tidal clam culture. The numbers of laborers involved in tidal culture system were similar between this study and the Baseline survey (2.8 and 2.7 laborers per household, respectively). Table 3: Labor force of clam culture farm and laborers involved in clam aquaculture Indicator Tidal culture Pond culture Total Mean 3.3 3.6 3.4 Min 1.0 1.0 1.0 Total labor (person) Max 4.0 5.0 5.0 Mean 2.1 2.3 2.2 Min 1.0 1.0 1.0 Male labor (person) Max 4.0 3.0 4.0 Mean 1.2 1.3 1.2 Min 1.0 1.0 1.0 Female labor (person) Max 3.0 3.0 3.0 Mean 2.8 1.8 2.3 Min 1.0 1.0 1.0 Aquaculture labor (person) Max 4.0 3.0 4.0 3.1.2.3 Household occupation Table 4 shows the information on occupational status of studied household in the project area. The two occupations indicated as the main job for the households include aquaculture and agriculture activities. Aquaculture was found to be the main occupation with a very high proportion (95.2%); in general, only 4.8% of farmers believed that agriculture was the main occupation for their families. There was not much difference in the percentages of main occupation for aquaculture and agriculture between tidal and pond clam aquaculture groups (97.0% compare to 91.5% and 3% compare to 6.5%, respectively). Aquaculture Research Sub Institute for North Central Vietnam South Australia Research and Development Institute Milestone Report Project Validation 10 The respondents indicated six activities as supplementary occupations for households in the study area. These activities include: aquaculture, agriculture, fisheries capture, fish processing, trade, and labor services. Aquaculture as a sup-occupation percentage was low in both tidal and pond culture groups and occupied only 4.8%, in general. Other activities of sup-occupation ranged between 13.1% and 21.7% respectively. Many families had no supplementary occupation. Table 4: Information on household occupations in the study area Indicator Tidal culture Pond culture Total Aquaculture 97.0 91.5 95.2 Main occupation (%) Agriculture 3.0 6.5 4.8 Aquaculture 3.0 6.5 4.8 Agriculture 18.5 21.7 19.6 Fisheries capture 13.6 16.1 15.2 Fisheries processing 17.0 18.3 18.0 Trade/services 15.7 11.6 13.1 Supplementary occupations (%) Labor 20.3 15.8 18.4 3.1.2.4 Household clam aquaculture experiences Clam aquaculture experiences for households in the project area were presented in the Table 5. In general, the average experience of clam culture households was 4.7 years and widely ranged from 1 to 10 years. Farmers who practiced tidal clam aquaculture had more experience than that of pond clam culture (6.5 compare to 1.7 years). Please note that before the implementation of this CARD project there was no commercial pond clam culture existing in Vietnam. The ranking of culture experience for the two groups was also different, tidal culture ranged between 2 and 10 years, but pond culture ranged between 1 and 2.5 years. In the Baseline report, the experience of tidal clam culture for households was 7.3 years, this is a comparatively longer time than that of the estimated period in this study. This may be due to the fact that more farms practiced tidal clam culture in recent years and this project contributed to the increase in clam culture. Therefore, the average years of clam farming experience was lower. Table 5: Clam aquaculture experience of households in the project area Indicator Tidal culture Pond culture Total Mean 6.5 1.7 4.6 Min 2.0 1.0 1.0 Clam aquaculture experience (year) Max 10.0 2.5 10.0 [...].. .Aquaculture Research Sub Institute for North Central Vietnam South Australia Research and Development Institute 3.1.2.4 Household clam culture training The information about technical training, training quality and rate of technical application were showed in the Table 6 84.2% of households in the project area were trained in clam culture techniques More pond culture households were trained in technical. .. livestock and labor were found only in pond clam aquaculture group 3.3 Factors influencing and being influenced by clam culture This sub-section analyses the factors influencing and being influenced by clam culture within the two groups (tidal and pond) of clam aquaculture farmers The data presented in tables 20 to 26 are the percentages of respondents consisting of 120 in the tidal group (group or farmer households) ... development of clam aquaculture production in Vietnam in general and central provinces in particular (ii) Additional clam hatcheries need to be established to meet the increasing clam seed demand In order to maintain a sustainable and vibrant clam culture industry supply of quality and quantity of seed vital (iii).There is great potential for further development of clam culture in ponds Calm culture in ponds... as moving the seed to reduce density after nursing and regularly checking clam and the elimination of predators (snail, crab,) and dead clams Table 32: Adoption rate of tidal clam farmers on seed stocking parameters Nr Indicator 1 2 Nursing clam seed from small size Moving seed to reduce density after nursing Checking frequently clam and eliminate predators (snail, crap,) and death clams Stocking time:... high tidal to sub-intertidal 100 2 Salinity in range of 7-3 5 ppt 100 3 Substrata: clay-sandy (20% clay, 80% sand) 87 3.5.2 Site preparation Table 32 presents the technical adoption rate of tidal clam farmers on site area preparation parameters There were 93% of tidal clam households that applied the guideline of ploughing and turning of the tidal area bottom before stocking clam seed 97% of farms adopted... (72% and 88% of respondent, respectively) Table 29: Adoption rate of pond clam farmers on algal production and clam pond management parameters Nr Indicator Percentage 1 2 Usually checking water transparency Using fertilize to produce algal in clam culture pond Weekly applying CaCO3 or dolomite to maintain value of pH (in range 7. 5-8 .5) and alkali (in range 8 0-1 50) Using lime of CaO in pond bank and. .. the guideline, 78% of pond clam households adopted this parameter Table 30: Adoption rate of pond clam farmers on harvesting and product preservations Nr 1 2 3 4 5 Indicator Total harvesting Partial harvesting Clean clam after harvesting Pack clams harvested Keep harvested clams under shady condition Percentage 22 78 100 78 100 3.5 Technical adoption rate of trained farmers of inter-tidal clam culture... recording by clam farmers The total production cost of clams in this study is higher than that of the Baseline survey (66.9 million VND per ha) This may be due to a number of factors including more investment of clam households and/ or the increase price of input materials, in particular clam seed which accounted for the highest proportion of the production cost In general, the total average income of clam. .. Min Max Mean Aquaculture area (ha) 0.50 0.35 0.50 3.2 Clam culture activities 3.2.1 Clam culture technical indicators 3.2.1.1 Pond/tidal area condition and clam culture system The origin of land used in clam aquaculture and pond water sources statistics in the study area are shown in the Table 8 Almost all the land (91.3%) used in aquaculture was converted from unused land All of the tidal culture households. .. Ca(OH)2 in pond water surface before heavy raining Using CaCO3 and or dolomite for three days to increase the value of pH if there is heavy rain Recording the unusual of clam health Usually checking clam shell 83 89 4 5 6 7 8 76 78 65 72 88 3.4.5 Harvesting and preservations Information on the adoption rate of pond clam farmers on harvesting and clam product preservation techniques are given in the . factors influencing and being influenced by clam culture (Section 3.3), technical adoption rate of trained households of pond clam culture (Section 3.4), and technical adoption rate of trained households. 6: Clam culture technical training, quality and rate of applying in the study area 11 Table 7: Type and area of land holding of farmers in the study region 12 Table 8: Land used in clam aquaculture. diversification of livelihoods of the poor coastal communities in Central Vietnam MS 10: Project Validation Report Analysis of Technical, Economic and Social Indicators and Assessment of Technical Adoption