Vũ Thị Thắm is among the first intensive pond aquaculture (IPA) adopters in Northern Vietnam, learning the IPA concept from a seminar organized by USSEC and Cargill in Hưng Yên, Vietnam in August 2016.
Ms. Tham constructed an IPA fixed floor raceway by following the instruction of Nguyễn Hữu Thọ, a technical manager at Cargill, who joined the Shanghai IPA tour trip in May 2016. She has a 3 ha farm, managed by her son, Vũ Duy Hào. She also runs a hub to collect fish from other farms to supply the market. After one month of stocking tilapia, she was very satisfied with the high survival rate compared to the same source of fingerlings stocked to the traditional pond.
Ms. Tham has already constructed 11 more raceways and a 400 square foot greenhouse to plant vegetable in an aquaponic system, designed and constructed by Hanoi Agriculture University. This system recirculates water from an in pond raceway system (IPRS) waste collector through a vegetable grow bed. Nutrients from the fish waste feed the vegetables, which filter the water to circulate back to the IPRS pond. The two main components of the system are the IPRS pond and the grow beds with an electric pump to move water from pond to beds and back.
Ms. Tham said, “I have fewer pests to deal with, thanks to indoor planting. The vegetables grow very quickly with no chemical fertilizer.” From her farm, she can supply the local market with clean fish from IPRS and clean vegetables from the aquaponic system.
IPRS has become a good approach for this fish farm in Northern Vietnam with nothing wasted from IPRS connected with aquaponics. USSEC aims to showcase the use of soybean meal in Vietnam’s aquaculture industry, creating a further demand for U.S. Soy.