Impact of aquaculture development on small scale farmers : a case study of AIT-Aquaculture Outreach Program in Southern Vietnam | |
| Author | Nguyen Minh Duc |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no. AQ-01-18 |
| Subject(s) | Farmers--Vietnam, Southern--Economic conditions Farmers--Vietnam, Southern--Social conditions |
| Note | A thesis submitted in paiiial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science, School of Environment, Resources and Development |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Series Statement | Thesis ; no. AQ-01-18 |
| Abstract | Some socio-economic impacts of the AOP's implementation process on small-scale farmers were evaluated in this study with a survey of 120 small-scale households on three provinces of South Vietnam, including of Tay Ninh, Binh Phuoc and Long An. The respondents were gathered in four groups of trial, trained, spread and non-project depending on involvement in AOP. There were an improvements in living conditions of trialists who were previously poorer in their community, although still many small-scale households living in poor housing conditions. In their limited land areas, the farmers have diversified their livelihoods into many farming enterprises. Their common livestock are pigs and sows while poultry (majority chicken), dairy cow, hens and cattle have just been raised in the recent years. Rice cultivation still plays an important role in farming activities of small-scale farmers, although in Southeast Vietnam, this enterprise vies in importance with other crops and industrial trees. Fish culture is also being developed with the increasing pond area and more investment of the farmers. The adoption of AOP's recommendations at high levels created the positive changes for trialists better than that of other fa1mers in practices of fish culture. For pond preparation, more drying time, more lime, more fertiliser as well as more embankment of pond dike were applied. The small-scale farmers involve in AOP stocked fish at larger sizes and lower densities, paid more attention to feeding fish as well as managing water quality and fish health. The trialists also got higher average yields of fish culture in 2001 than before involving in AOP as well as than other farmers. These positive changes demonstrated the effectiveness of AOP's support to small-scale farmers in the project target area. For livelihoods diversification of the farmers, fish culture has increasingly become an effective way to earn money. In farming enterprises, in contrast to the decrease of income from livestock husbandry and rice cultivation, income from fish culture has considerably increased in the same as income from crops and fmit trees. Fish culture also had increased contribution to household income, although not too large to become the most important source of income. Thus, all respondents expressed their satisfaction to fish culture and the greater satisfaction belongs to spread and trial farmers. Moreover, small-scale fish culture has played an important role for improving quality of life, mainly in trialists' households. The farmers involved in AOP also expressed their satisfaction to AOP support and recommendations and agreed that these support had been an encouragement to involve them in fish culture. In spite of existing problems, mainly of social and economic ones, the farmers involved in AOP expressed their self-confidence to pursue fish culture, but still need more supports to improve their fish yield and production. The common plans of the farmers for fish culture are expansion of pond area and investment more into existing areas with the many reasons such as getting higher income and more food. In brief, the Aqua Outreach Program has created many positive impacts to small-scale farmers and partial reached its objectives of improving livelihoods for the poorest groups in rural areas. However, the support from AOP is necessaries to be maintained and developed in the larger areas and at higher levels to enable more poor farmers improve sustainably their livelihoods. l |
| Year | 2001 |
| Corresponding Series Added Entry | Asian Institute of Technology. Thesis ; no. AQ-01-18 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources (Former title: Department of Food Agriculture, and BioResources (DFAB)) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Aquaculture and Aquatic Resources Management (AQ) |
| Chairperson(s) | Demaine, Harvey;Yakupitiyage, Amararatne; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Dale, Reidar; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | DANIDA - Aqua; |
| Degree | Thesis (M.Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2001 |