Continuous development of sustainable innovations for the aquaculture sector in the Mekong Delta

In Vietnam, the aquaculture sector started in the early 1960s with small scale extensive culture systems such as rice-cum-fish, livestock-cum-fish and earthen ponds production systems. The rapid growth the sector has achieved during the last two decades has been a direct result of adapting intensive production practices for mostly exportable species. Vietnams aquaculture production increased to 500,000 tons in 2000. Afterwards, with the development of the pangasius and shrimp industries, production increased fivefold in eight years, to just under 2.5 million tons. Despite this enormous success of the aquaculture sector in Viet Nam, there are a number of challenges to achieve a more sustainable growth of the sector. The main challenges are:

a) Reduction of negative environmental impacts.
b) Control of diseases outbreak.
c) Improvement of cost efficiency and productivity.
d) Risks linked to monoculture and crowding out other species.
e) Build a strong international reputation for Vietnamese aquatic products with regards to product quality and sustainability.

A project consortium consisting of De Heus Animal Nutrition B.V., De Heus LLC, Wageningen University, Can Tho University and Fresh Studio Innovations Asia Ltd will carry out this project.
The project consortium aims to develop an alternative approach in the aquaculture sector: an applied aquaculture R&D services farm. This newly to be developed professionally managed farm, will provide R&D services to a wide range of companies and public research programs. The consortium envisage that this will eventually lead to economies of scale in applied R&D, the development of a critical mass in knowledge and so called R&D alliances.