Environmental Efficiency of Intensive Shrimp Farming in Transforming Areas of The Coastal Mekong Delta

Efficient use of environmentally detrimental inputs in agricultural production activities in general and intensive shrimp farming in particular is very important for achieving sustainable development goals, especially for the vulnerable coastal areas of the Vietnamese Mekong Delta. In order to provide solutions for improving the environmental efficiency of intensive shrimp farmers who recently transformed their farming systems, the study conducted face-to-face interviews with 160 farmers in Kien Giang and Soc Trang provinces. The study employed one-step stochastic frontier analysis to estimate the output-oriented technical efficiency, then measure the environmental efficiency for each shrimp farmers. Besides, the study also employed Tobit regression to investigate the factors affecting the environmental efficiency. The study found that the average output-oriented technical efficiency of shrimp farmers is 92.32%. The average efficiency scores in Soc Trang and Kien Giang are 90.54% and 96.89%, respectively. The study also found that the average environmental efficiency of the converted shrimp farmers in the study sites is 91.77%, specifically 89.73% in Soc Trang and 97.02% in Kien Giang. This result indicates that the shrimp farmers in Soc Trang and Kien Giang provinces can reduce by 10.27% and 2.08%, respectively, of the total environmentally detrimental inputs (feed, medicine, and fuel) without compromising output level while keeping normal inputs constant. The Tobit regression indicated that there are five factors having significant effects on the environmental efficiency. Of which, experience, pond area and density have positive effects while location and number of ponds have negative effects on the environmental efficiency.