Page 16 - Agricultural innovation

train farmers in pruning, watering, weeding, controlling insects and diseases, and applying fertilizer.
A decline in the productivity of mandarin tree stems old mandarin trees, the proportion of old
mandarin trees in the Nambak district is increasing over time. To deal with this problem, the project
experts demonstrated rejuvenating the mandarin trees by cutting and leaving only the main branches.
Mandarin farmers in Nambak never used this technique before, they wonder whether the technique
works. They started to accept it when their mandarin trees recover and grow healthy. Rejuvenating and
pruning old trees improves the productivity of mandarin trees by around 20 percent compared to old
trees without rejuvenation.

3.3.3. Opportunities and challenges

The collaboration project between KOPIA and the Nonsoung research center significantly contributes
to improving the productivity of mandarin trees in the Nambak district. Mandarin farmers directly
benefit from the project. Problems by farmers were addressed, and the number of dead mandarin trees
decreases. The application of the rejuvenation technique improves the productivity of mandarin trees
by around 10 to 20 percent compared to the conventional technique.
However, convincing farmers to accept new production techniques takes time and requires a ton
of effort and resources. In addtion, the application of rejuvenation techniques is not widely applied as
expected because many farmers still do not understand the advantage of the technique.

3.3.4. Conclusions
The rejuvenation technique is widely applied to address the low productivity of old mandarin trees.
This technique is not only effective for mandarin trees but also for other types of fruit trees as well as
in other localities. Experiences in project implementation will be valuable lessons for restoring and
developing traditional Lao products as well as supporting farmers in accessing more sustainable and
effective farming methods. This is also a model to serve training tour activities for the Lao agricultural
sector in training programs on fruit tree management and replanting.

3.4. Shrimp Aquaculture TOMGOXY at My Lan Company in Tra Vinh Province
3.4.1. General information
Aquaculture in general, shrimp farming in particular is an agricultural production activity that brings
many times higher profits than monoculture rice cultivation in the Mekong Delta. Therefore, some
coastal areas in Bac Lieu, Ben Tre, Tra Vinh, Ca Mau, etc. have been strongly converted from rice land
to aquaculture land. People’s lives have been greatly improved and the area of shrimp farming has
increased dramatically.
However, from the beginning of 2002, more than 70% of intensive shrimp farms had to reduce
production or stop farming due to diseases. In order to increase productivity, the brackish water shrimp
farming industry in the Mekong River Delta has gradually shifted from the model of “extensive earth-
pond” shrimp farming, to “intensive farming of HDPE-lined floating ponds” and “super intensive
farming of floating ponds lined with tarpaulins HDPE-covered” with the density of commercial shrimp
can reach 500 shrimps/m . High-tech shrimp farming models require multidisciplinary knowledge,
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from chemistry to water treatment, biology to microbiology, shrimp farming, algae farming to business
knowledge to access domestic and foreign markets.
The high-tech shrimp farming model applying 4.0 technology of My Lan Group at Salicornia
SJC Company has completely changed the long-standing traditional shrimp farming process in
the Mekong Delta. RYAN Technologies Vietnam—a start-up company in Tra Vinh province, has
been researching, developing and applying TOMGOXY intensive shrimp farming model, based on

Agricultural Innovation Review in CLV Countries 9