Farmers in Vietnam’s southernmost province, Ca Mau, in the Mekong River delta, intentionally pierced four dikes erected against saltwater encroachment so they can convert rice paddies to seafood ponds. It was an illegal move, “but we just want to breed prawns to escape poverty,” farmer Nguyen Thi Bi told Xinhua news agency as she stood on the edge of a newly created aquaculture pond.
“We are as poor as church mice if we only grow rice,” she said. Bi’s family used to earn several hundred dollars by growing two rice crops a year on one hectare. The revenue from prawns and crabs raised in their 0.3-hectare pond is 10 times greater. Agriculture officials for Ca Mau Province say 2,700 hectares (10.4 square miles) of rice paddies have been converted to seafood production in the past three years. Communal officials turn a blind eye to the rule-breaking because residents are poor and rice prices was unbearably low.
“Similar situations are occurring in other Mekong Delta provinces,” says Xinhua. Rather than relying on rice, growers increasingly combine rice and prawn production on their land. In Bac Lieu Province, there are 30,000 hectares (116 square miles) of combined rice and prawn land.
Vietnam is one of the largest rice growers and exporters in the world, and also one of the most vulnerable to climate change. Drought magnified the threat of rising sea levels this year by reducing freshwater flow in the Mekong and letting saltwater creep farther upstream. Some growers lacked fresh water to irrigate their rice.
For more on shrimp farming in Vietnam, check out FERN’s 2014 piece with The Guardian, “Hu tieu, a Vietnamese dish spiced with prosperity and climate change.”