Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development Collaboration for Agriculture & Rural Development (CARD) 027/05VIE Development of clam culture for improvement and diversification of livelihoods of the poor coastal communities in Central Vietnam MS04: 2nd Six-Monthly Report Oct, 2006 – Mar, 2007 Table of Contents Institute Information _ 2 Project Abstract _ 3 Executive Summary 4 Introduction & Background _ 5 Progress to Date _ 5.1 Implementation Highlights 5.1.1 5.1.2 Clam production (Grow-out trials) Hatchery production 22 5.2 Smallholder Benefits -22 5.2.1 5.2.2 5.2.3 5.2.4 5.2.5 5.3 Opportunity to utilize the brackish water ponds for clam production _ 22 Increasing of production and benefit from clam culture in the intertidal areas 22 Easily Applicable Farming Knowledge 22 Low Investment Risk 22 Maximizing Commercial Potential through Knowledge _ 23 Capacity Building 24 5.3.1 5.3.2 5.3.3 ARSINC _ 24 End-users _ 24 Enhanced reputation and relation ship with other institutions and collaborators 24 5.3 Publicity 24 5.4 Project Management 24 Report on Cross-Cutting Issues 25 6.1 Environment Environment _ 25 6.2 Gender and Social Issues 25 Implementation & Sustainability Issues _ 25 7.1 Issues and Constraints _ 25 7.2 Options _ 25 7.3 Sustainability 25 Next Critical Steps 25 Conclusion 26 10 Statuatory Declaration _ 26 Institute Information Date commenced Development of clam culture for improvement and diversification of livelihoods of the poor coastal communities in Central Vietnam (Project No: 027/05VIE) Aquaculture Research Sub-Institution for North Central (ARSINC) Mr Nhu Van Can (Project Director) Mr Chu Chi Thiet (Project Manager) South Australian Research and Development Institution (SARDI) Dr Martin S Kumar (Team Leader) Dr Bennan Chen (Senior Scientist) February 2006 Completion date (original) February 2009 Project Name Vietnamese Institution Vietnamese Project Team Leader Australian Organisation Australian Personnel Completion date (revised) Reporting period November 2006, April 2007 Contact Officer(s) In Australia: Team Leader Name: Position: Dr Martin Kumar Principal Scientist, and Program Leader, Integrated Biosystems Integrated Resource Management and Biotechnology Organisation South Australian Research and Development Institution (SARDI) Telephone: Fax: 08 82075 400 08 82075481 Email: kumar.martin@saug ov.sa.gov.au In Australia: Administrative contact Name: Position: Organisation Telephone: Fax: Email: In Vietnam Nhu Van Can Name: Director Position: Organisation Aquaculture Research Institute for North-Central Telephone: Fax: Email: +84.383829884 +84.383829378 arsinc@vnn.vn Project Abstract The main objective of the project is to develop and extend the clam culture technology (hatchery and husbandry) to sustain livelihoods of poor coastal farmers in the North Central provinces and to develop a strategy which contributes to sustainable aquatic environment management using clam aquaculture to improve prawn farm effluent utilisation Significant progress has been made in this section Key findings are listed below  Clam production can be successfully undertaken in ponds Currently clam culture is practiced in inter-tidal area  The preferred substrate for clam culture is clay-sandy  The clam cultured at lower density (90 ind./m2) showed faster growth rate The size of clam determines the market price Price of the clam greatly influences the economics of the clam culture Therefore, it is important consider the growth rate and the culture duration available for each type of culture practice before deciding appropriate stocking density and size of the clam for initial stocking In relation to hatchery spat production, a major upgrading of hatchery facility has been undertaken at ARSINC which improved production of live feed clam larval rearing Presently the facility provides stable output of at least marine algal species: Nanochloropsis, Isocrysis, Tetraselmis and Executive Summary Chaetoceros and ready for next breeding season The 3.1 Project Implementation Progress 1.1 Key Highlights Project progressed well during the first year and achieved specified milestones related technology development in clam husbandry (production) and hatchery areas Following milestone reports submitted were reviewed and accepted  Socio-economic evaluation report  First six monthly report In accordance with the proposal the first year work was focussed on technology development through adaptive research in hatchery and husbandry technology The key highlights include:  clam culture in ponds (production) experiments involving prawn farm effluent and influent have been completed;  clam and prawn polyculture experiments were completed;  trial on clam culture in the inter-tidal has been just concluded and data analysis being carried out; and  experiments on clam cultured as alternative crop is also just concluded and data analysis being carried out  hatchery infrastructure upgraded (including live feed production) for spat production trials and trials are progressing well  training course including study tour in SARDI, Australia for key staff of ARSINC and representatives of local government satff has been conducted In the second year, the work will be concentrated on farm trials, which fine tune the technology and facilitate formulation of extension manuals A Farmer selection criterion was developed in consultation with lead farmers, village representatives and provincial authorities The details will be reported in the next report In the third year, work will focus on extension of technology including expanded farmer participated trials Project impact will also be assessed during the third year 3.1.2 Key outcome a) Production experiments made excellent progress Significant progress has been made in this component of the project Results from production experiment indicated that clam can be successfully cultured in ponds The results also provide suggestions for appropriate stocking density and substrata to maximize growth and production of clam culture in ponds Key findings are listed below    Clam production can be successfully undertaken in ponds Currently clam culture is practiced in inter-tidal area Our experiments proved that clam culture could be expanded and pond system could be utilised for successful operation Clam can be cultured in three kind of substrate including clay, sandy and clay-sandy substrate However, the preferred substrate is clay-sandy especially in effluent pond system The clam cultured at lower density (90 ind./m2) showed faster growth rate compared to higher density (120 ind./m2) in influent system However, the growth of clam likely to be same when cultured at the rate of 90 and 120 ind./m2  The size of clam determines the market price Price of the clam greatly influences the economics of the clam culture Therefore, it is important consider the growth rate and the culture duration available for each type of culture practice before deciding appropriate stocking density and size of the clam for initial stocking b) Upgrading facility and improve live feed production for hatchery production experiments Based on the previous results from hatchery experiments last year, and recommendation from the first report, food and feeding ( algae) were regarded as major factor that might influence the spat production (please refer to the 1st six monthly report) Effort on production of algae resulted in stable output for at least marine algal species: Nanochloropsis, Isocrysis, Tetraselmis and Chaetoceros Further more, the infrastructure for the spat production have been improved and ready for the next breeding season Overall the project is progressing well as per the proposal Introduction & Background A summary of the project objective, outputs expected and approach and methodology The main objective is to develop and extend the clam culture technology (hatchery and husbandry) to sustain livelihoods of poor coastal farmers in the North Central provinces; and to develop a strategy which contributes to sustainable aquatic environment management using clam aquaculture to improve prawn farm effluent utilisation The aims of the proposed project are: a) to provide poor fisher community an alternative income, food security; b) to improve technological and extension capacity for the stakeholders; and c) to reduce negative impacts of shrimp culture through implementation of a strategy for environmental management and waste utilisation of existing resources 4.1 Specific objectives: The objectives of this project (027/05VIE) include the following:  to develop and extend the clam culture technology (hatchery and husbandry);  to sustain livelihoods of poor coastal farmers in the North Central provinces; and  to develop a strategy which contributes to sustainable aquatic environment management using clam aquaculture to improve prawn farm effluent utilization 4.2 Outputs Expected In accordance with expected output proposed, the last six months were focused on following aspects related to achieving the development of clam production technology The log frame reference is provided in the appendix A  Complete experiments of clam culture in the influent, effluent system and polyculture of clam with shrimp in ponds  Establish and operate the experiment on clam culture as alternative crop of shrimp culture in ponds  Establish and operate the experiment on clam culture in the inter-tidal areas  Improve algae production for the next breeding season  Above mentioned activities were completed as per the proposed log frame 4.3 Methodology The visits by Australian Project Leader and scientists (August 2006, December 2006 and April 2007) enabled to undertake major review of the project methodology, implementation strategy and resource and progress evaluation Scientific approach has been refined for implementing appropriate methodology for the experiments related to both clam husbandry and hatchery As a result of these steps (ref:1st six monthly report) , it was possible to incorporate information from preliminary research results into the following experimental design; clear scientific comparisons are possible; avoiding duplication of activities; and efficient usage of resources Progress to Date 5.1 Implementation Highlights Note: Detailed implementation progress is recorded in attached Progress Report Logframe This format is provided as a guide The main purpose of progress reports is to report against the achievement of the activities detailed in the project proposal logframe 5.1.1 Clam production (Grow-out trials) The research in pond culture type will be focused on suitability of substrate, optimum stocking density, and stocking size All experiments were conducted in triplicate The outcome of the experiments (culture types) will be used for the development of technical guidelines for on farm trials in the second year The clam production involved the following types culture trials a) Clam culture using prawn farm influent water (reservoir): Clam culture will be carried out as a pre- treatment for water intake in prawn farm- completed b) Clam culture using prawn farm effluent (effluent treatment pond) Clam farm will be utilised as effluent treatment pond The expected outcome is a good strategy on management practices for shrimp ponds and clam culture- completed c) Shrimp and clam polyculture: Simultaneous culture of prawn and clams will be undertaken with a view to improve farm water quality as well as generate additional income- completed d) Alternative/rotation crop: Clam culture will be under taken after the pawn harvest as rotational – progressing well e) Clam culture in intertidal area: Inter tidal area will be divided into three zones based on the tidal influence for clam culture- progressing well Trials related to a, b, and c are completed Clam culture on inter-tidal area and prawn pond (rotational/alternative crop) are progressing well 5.1.1.1 Experiment on clam culture in prawn farm influent and effluent The main aim of this experiment is develop a method of clam culture in ponds using prawn influent and effluent The objectives of the trial are to:  To determine suitable substrate for optimising the clam biomass( production)  To determine optimum density for optimising the clam biomass (production) Clam culture has been mainly carried out in the inter-tidal area In order to develop and expand clam culture as a viable farming industry it is necessary to develop pond culture technology There is also a need to transform the existing prawn farming to more environmentally sustainable by utilising the effluent which causes aquatic pollution Fig Effluent pond system Fig Influent pond system Materials and method A pond culture system using effluent from prawn farm has been established for this experiment for two treatments – bottom (substrate) and stocking density The trial conducted at Thanh Hoa Province included 18 ponds of m2 plots were used for bottom treatment: sand bottom, clay-sand bottom and clay bottom with stocking density of 90 pieces/ m2 in the replication of Other sandy-bed ponds for treatment of density in the same replication including: 90 clams/m2, 120 clams/m2 and 150 clams/ m2 A similar experimental design was used for influent water Environment parameters such as DO, water temperature, pH, N-NH3, turbidity as well as zoobenthod were periodically monitored and registered Clams were randomly sampled (30 individuals for each pond) for growth evaluation The experiments were terminated after 120 day rearing All data of the treatments were tested for significant differences (P