Page 19 - Agricultural innovation

shrimp and the purpose of each stage. Instead of completely using natural light, shrimp ponds are
combined between natural light and artificial light, in which the “daytime” period will last 18 hours
and the evening time is 6 hours. According to the author of this model, Mr. Nguyen Thanh My, “the
shrimp is greatly affected by sunlight. If there is sunlight, they will follow in groups and eat industrial
food, otherwise they will be solitary hunters and only eat algae and zooplankton. If shrimp eat a lot of
natural food, the quality of shrimp is better, they eat better, but if they eat a lot of industrial food, they
will grow faster.”
The artificial light source and color will not be fixed but can be programmed to change automatically
depending on the age and growth of the shrimp. In addition, with this model, shrimp ponds will also
be controlled by digital technology to automate and report directly to shrimp farmers important
parameters such as pH, salinity, dissolved oxygen concentration, etc. via mobile phone.

Table 1. Comparision between various shrimp farming methods in Vietnam

Shrimp farming Natural Intesive Super intensive Togoxy (Digital physical
(Biochemical)
(Chemical)
biochemical)
Farming pond • Soil • Floating pond lined • Floating pond lined with • Floating pond lined with HDPE
structure with HDPE manual HDPE and roof manual and roof; automatic siphon
siphon siphon
Farming area • 100% • <20% • 20–30% • 50%
Shrimp density • 10–30 con/m 2 • 100–300 shrimps/m 2 • 300–500 shrimps/m 2 • >500 shrimps/m 2
Operation • Manual • Manual • Manual/semi-automatic • Automatic with digital
technology and AI
Material input • Algae, Plankton • Industrial food • Industrial Food • Industrial Food
• Antibiotic • Antibiotic • Functional food
• Mineral • Microorganisms and algae • Microorganisms and algae
• Vitamins • Herbal • Herbal
• Mineral • Mineral
• Vitamins • Vitamin
Method of generating • Natural • Aeration DOm <7.6 • Aeration DOm <7.6 mg/L • Oxidized with pure oxygen
dissolved oxygen in mg/L • Troubled water DOm = 10–20 mg/L
water • Troubled water • ~5,000 kWh/ton of shrimp • Floor flowing water <2,000 kWh/
• ~5,000 kWh/ton of ton of shrimp
shrimp
Lighting • Natural • Natural <12 hours/day • Natural <12 hours/day • Natural and artifical
>18 hours/day
Investment capital • Low • Medium • High • Medium

Source: Nguyen Thanh My, My Lan Group

With all these changes, shrimp farmers can increase the stocking density per farming area to
over 500 shrimp/m . At the same time, it is possible to replace chemicals with physical and biological
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methods in water treatment and shrimp disease prevention, protect the ecological environment and
reduce investment costs compared to the current super-intensive shrimp farming model.
Thus, this new model of super-intensive shrimp farming has solved a number of problems in
traditional intensive shrimp farming, including:

• Difficulty siphoning organic waste out of shrimp ponds because shrimp manure and leftovers
are broken down into very fine particles and evenly dispersed into the water, combined with an
almost flat pond bottom and the presence of many diffuse clusters.
• Blowing away a large amount of water-soluble molecular oxygen produced by photosynthesis of
algae during the day
• Creates airborne particles that can be carried by wind blowing to neighboring shrimp ponds.

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