Tra Vinh (VNA) – The Department ofAgriculture and Rural Development of the Mekong Delta province of Tra Vinh is runninga high-tech project to boost the capacity of the local super-intensive farmingmodel for white-leg shrimps.

The model is called super-intensive farming asthe number of shrimps farmed is up to 250 per square metre, compared with 50 intraditional models. Farmers thus harvest 40 tonnes per hectare per crop, sevento eight times higher than in traditional models.

Nguyen Van Phung, deputy head of thedepartment’s Agricultural Extension Centre, said the project is being pilotedin two farms in Duyen Hai district, with encouraging initial outcomes.

The project uses an automatic monitoringsystem with sensors to check the water PH, alkalinity and oxygen levels as wellas temperature at shrimp farms. All indexes are then sent to be analysed andstored. Farmers can keep track of their farms via computers and smartphones.

Nguyen Nhat Hoang, who runs one of the twopilot farms, said he is raising 200 white-leg shrimps per square metre across awater surface that spans 1,500 square metres. His shrimps are now 90 days oldand will be harvested in about 30 days, with an estimated yield exceeding 5.6tonnes per hectare.

Hoang said the monitoring system helpsfarmers remotely manage their farms in terms of weather conditions and waterenvironment.

Last year, the province produced 45,000tonnes of brackish water, white-leg and black tigershrimps.

With its 65km coastline, Tra Vinh is lookingto increase its brackish water shrimp output to 70,640 tonnes by 2020 and morethan 103,300 tonnes by 2030.-VNA