At the event, Nguyen Phuong Duy, a WWF representative, said that after two years of implementation, the project has contributed to changing the traditional shrimp farming practice to reduce the risk of disease. It also helped farmers find markets for their products, creating jobs for rural workers, and bettering local livelihoods through the climate-resilient shrimp – rice farming model.
He expressed his hope that the farmers will continue applying technical models into production, while finding solutions to align them with the situation in different localities.
According to Deputy Director of the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Trung Hieu, Bac Lieu has been a major shrimp hub of the country with a yearly output of 32-35 billion shrimp fry. As the shrimp sector faces formidable challenges putting a drag on economic efficiency, the project is significant for the industry to remove bottlenecks in management and application of advanced techniques, as well as promote effective models for sustainable agricultural production.
This year, the project is being implemented in six cooperatives in two districts and a town in Bac Lieu, benefiting over 2,700 farmers./.