Promoting responsible aquaculture through public private collaboration in the Mekong delta

Vietnam is a top player in global aquaculture (in the top 5 largest shrimp exporter and 1st largest pangasius exporter) and is playing a key role in supplying animal proteins for a growing worldwide population. The industry accounts for 25% of agriculture production, employs 5 million people and has been staying in the top 10 national export products for 20 years. The Mekong Delta of Vietnam is the most productive delta in the world in terms of aquaculture production due to the nature gifted characteristics and favorable conditions for Aquaculture and Agriculture development. However, due to climate change, unsustainable farming practices, poor planning, inadequate disease control and limited coordination between private and public sector, aquaculture production in the Mekong Delta is faced with high risks of disease outbreak causing economic loss and affecting the livelihood of thousands of farmers and leading to serious environmental pollution issues. While the biggest challenge in shrimp production is disease, the biggest challenges in pangasius production include alleged environmental pollution and the use of antimicrobials affecting the image of the industry. Even though there are some significant efforts of the government and aquaculture producers to deal with environmental monitoring and disease control, these efforts are still very isolated and not well coordinated (especially with the private sector) to have notable impacts.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural development has (recently) recognized the importance of public private collaboration to address these issues, especially in disease control and management. Therefore, a PPP taskforce for Fisheries with representatives of relevant government agencies, NGOs and private sector has been established under Partnership for Sustainable Agriculture in Viet Nam (PSAV). Directorate of Fisheries (D-Fish) was assigned to be the co-chair together with Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) and IDH. In the recent PPP Fisheries Taskforce meeting, the taskforce agreed to develop a project proposal on: “Promoting responsible aquaculture through public private collaboration in the Mekong delta”. It is expected that the funding for this project (1 million USD) will be contributed by different stakeholders including of course the private sector and NGO, combined with existing government resources. So far at least 400.000 USD has been committed. This project is expected to start at 4th quarter of 2018 with the aim of promoting public-private collaboration and in aquatic disease management, strengthening the data and information management in the aquaculture sector in the Mekong. Environmental monitoring and other relevant data are somehow collected by aquaculture producers and government. However, data collection is sparse and not really used to understand ways at controlling diseases and increasing production. The project aims at making the best use of these available data by setting up a mechanism where these data are combined and analyzed for management decisions in reducing environmental impact, disease control and improving productivity. If proved successful, the project model can be applied not only in other areas in Mekong Delta, but also in other aquaculture production zones in the North of Vietnam by both government and private companies. The government in Vietnam also expects this project to become an examples of how public and private partners can work together to address common challenges.