Aquaculture brings lasting change to Viet Nam’s Mekong Delta

For centuries, the fertile waters of the Mekong Delta have sustained millions of people in Viet Nam. With IFAD's support, the region's small-scale farmers are ensuring this continues long into the future.

Three years after our Project for Adaption to Climate Change in the Mekong Delta (AMD) came to an end, we returned to southern Viet Nam to see if rural communities have continued to thrive.

Miracle molluscs

Ngot harvests blood cockles in the Xep Lay river. © IFAD/Nguyen Hoang Sanh

In the Xep Lay river, which flows through the delta in Tra Vinh province, Ngot has found prosperity by farming blood cockles. These small, red-fleshed clams are a delicacy across Southeast Asia – and they're key to climate adaptation, too.

Saltwater incursions, the result of changing weather patterns, are raising the river’s salinity beyond what many crops can cope with. But blood cockles flourish in saltier water, making them an ideal safeguard against climate change.

Ngot pivoted to cockle farming back in 2018, when his cooperative received funding through AMD to buy their first juvenile clams. Having built nets and tended the mudflats to make them suitable for blood cockles, they set to work.

Today, the cooperative harvests three tonnes of blood cockles annually and sells them to large-scale buyers. The 1,000 juvenile clams Ngot received back in 2018 have since multiplied to 70,000 full-grown cockles.

Business is going so well that other aspiring cockle farmers are hiring him and his partners for their expertise. For Ngot and his family, the increased income has been transformative.

“Before joining the project in 2018, my family was poor,” says Ngot. “We have a more stable, fuller and happier life.”

Powerful prawns

Truyen holds up a prawn freshly harvested from his rice paddy. © IFAD/Nguyen Hoang Sanh

Truyen once struggled to earn a modest income from growing rice. But he transformed his farm using an innovative aquaculture technique: growing giant freshwater prawns in the standing water of his paddies.

Freshwater prawns devour pests, drastically reducing the need for pesticides, while their waste improves soil fertility. At the same time, their own food sources are naturally present in paddy fields, meaning they rarely need feeding.

Truyen discovered the sustainable farming technique back in 2018 thanks to ADM, which supported him with a loan and technical training. Together with 10 other rice farmers in Ben Tre province, he started farming prawns and never looked back.

A few months after each rice harvest, Truyen now drains his paddy to gather the prawns, selling the larger ones while keeping the smaller ones to restock the field.

The prawns have allowed him to supplement his income and boost rice production at the same time.

“I have been able build a spacious home for my family and buy a new 1.5 hectare rice field near my home,” says Truyen.

Fruitful fish

Chung, hard at work at her fish processing plant. © IFAD/Nguyen Hoang Sanh

Chung used to dry fish the traditional way – buying it from local fishermen, marinating it using her family recipe, and laying it under the hot sun. But while her small processing plant supplemented her husband’s shrimp farming income, the household still struggled to make ends meet.

That was before she received a loan and technical advice through ADM. With modern drying equipment and a cold-storage warehouse now within reach, it was just the boost she needed.

Today, years after the project closed, Chung’s business is booming. The Phat Huy Seafood Processing Company employs 20 people and processes 24 tonnes of fish each year.

Since her company took off, Chung’s family has stepped in to support her. Her husband, like other local aquaculturists, switched from shrimp to tilapia and catfish farming to supply the factory. Her two children, whose university studies she was able to afford, returned home to expand the business through e-commerce.

Now that she's transformed her own livelihood, Chung wants to help others do the same. “My children and I have big plans: to help families escape the poverty my family once experienced,” she says.

*

When small-scale farmers have the resources they need for their businesses to succeed, they don't just benefit in the short term. They can pull their families out of intergenerational poverty and transform their communities for years to come.

That’s why IFAD’s investments in rural people are investments in the future, reaping rewards long after projects end– and achieving truly sustainable development.

Read more about the rural people who participated in the AMD project.