Founders of the Mekong Organics visited a natural shrimp-rice farming in the Mekong Delta
During this study tour, Dr Kien and Dr Daniel also visited another farmer who resides in Tran De District of Soc Trang province. Mr Hung used to fail to earn from intensive shrimp in this village for years. He decided to recovery his natural rice-shrimp farming. He made use the benefits of interfaced brackish water and the tides from Mekong River systems. He owns 1 hectare of land which is used to cultivating one crop of rice (chemical free rice) in the wet season while attracting the wild shrimp year-round from the river systems. In the dry season, he harvests more shrimp than the wet season. The middlemen come into his house to collect the shrimp in every two days. He could harvest 15 days/month, 15-20 USD/day, without any costs such as feed. He spent only 1-2 hrs/day to prepare the trap and collect the shrimp. He has been doing this task for several years, is very happy with this way of farming. He feels very relaxed, not stressful as he did intensive farming previously. He wish to turn this system into the organic rice-shrimp and work with neighbouring farmers to develop a long-term sustainalbe market for this type of farming practice.