ICAR-CIBA in association with its professional society, SCAFi organized the second lecture on ‘Aquaculture in Vietnam’ in the series on Aquaculture without Borders on 20.07.2022. Dr. Pham Quoc Hung, Director, Institute of Aquaculture, Nha Trang University, Vietnam delivered the talk. Vietnam with its coastline of 3,260 kilometers and an Economic Exclusion Zone of 1 million square kilometers is an ideal country to boast seafood industry, including both aquaculture and open ocean fishing. Northern region of Vietnam is dominated by freshwater fish ponds, rice-cum-fish and marine cage culture. Central Region concentrates on the intensive culture of giant tiger prawn and the marine cage culture of finfish or lobster. Southern region has the most diversified farming activities that include pond, fence and cage culture of catfish as well as several indigenous species such as snakehead fish and climbing perch and giant river prawn, various intensification levels of shrimp culture and integrated culture such as rice-cum-fish, rice-cum-prawn and mangrove-cum-aquaculture. Key aquaculture species cultured include Pangasius, Shrimp (tiger and pacific white), fresh water prawn, Tilapia and also increasingly bivalves and marine fishes such as Cobia, Seabass and Grouper. Aquaculture is concentrated in the Mekong River Delta provinces, accounting for around 75% and 80% respectively of the total national Pangasius and Shrimp production. After outlining cultural practices of major species, Dr. Hung also spoke about challenges faced due to recurrent natural calamities, poor quality inputs and concluded his talk highlighting the importance of government policy support including crop insurance for aquaculture. Dr. C.V.Sairam Director (i/c) welcomed the speaker and participants and Dr. Akshya Panigrahi, Vice President, SCAFi thanked the participants at the end. Dr.T.Ravisankar, Secretary SCAFi coordinated the programme.
