Willingness to adopt improved shrimp aquaculture practices in Vietnam

Abstract The shrimp industry plays a leading role in aquaculture development in Vietnam. Currently, the government is running a credit subsidy program to support farmers investing in improved production methods. This paper aimed to investigate white-legged shrimp farmers’ willingness to invest in improved production methods and to examine whether the current government policy for the sector is in line with farmers’ preferences using a discrete choice experiment. The results show that farmers do not care about the environmental impacts but emphasize increased yields and more successful crops as the main drivers of their willingness to invest. There is a mismatch between the current subsidized interest rate and farmers’ required interest rate. These findings suggest that to promote better investment in improved production methods, the government should focus on the regulatory framework, monitoring and control of environmental impacts, and reevaluate the size of the credit subsidy.