TECHNICAL AND FINANCIAL STATUS OF WHITE LEG SHRIMP (Litopenaeus vannamei) FARMING IN FRESHWATER AREAS IN LONG AN PROVINCE

White leg shrimp farming in freshwater area is a spontaneous production activity however that has developed strongly in Long An Province in recent. This study was carried out by surveying 30 shrimp farmers in two freshwater districts of Long An Province including Tan Thanh and Moc Hoa. The result showed that themain technical criteria of shrimp farming were recorded including 0.28 ha of culture pond area, 1.6 m of water level depth, 2.7o=oo of salinity, 88 mg.L-1 of alkalinity, 143 individual.m-2 of stocking density, 86.9 days of culture time, 78.8% of survival rate, 24.7 tons.ha-1.crop-1 of yield and 1.25 of FCR. Regarding the financial status, the total investment cost and profit of shrimp farming were 2,120.8 millions VND/ha/crop and 1,079.6millions VND/ha/crop, respectively. The result of regression analysis showed that the factors including pond area, survival rate of shrimp and FCR were the major factors which had a significant impact on farming productivity. Meanwhile the shrimp farming profit was strongly influenced by 5 main factors including labor cost, feed cost, drug cost, pond renewed cost and shrimp farming productivity.