FRESHWATER AQUACULTURE’S CONTRIBUTION TO FOOD SECURITY IN VIETNAM: A case study of freshwater tilapia aquaculture in Hai Duong province

Vietnam has become the second largest rice exporter in the world. However, the food security is still a local urgent necessity for the farmers in several parts of the country, particularly, in area where most of arable land used to low paddies have been transferred to uncertain crops causing many difficulties to farmers on their food need. The current and potential contributions of aquaculture to food security have been well depicted under aspects of food availability (quantity and quality), food access (affordability), food utilization (nutrition, food preparation and sanitation knowledge, dietary habits, health conditions) . This paper presents the findings of the study on 70 freshwater tilapia fish and 35 none-fish farms in Tu Ky district, Hai Duong province on their production and marketing activities. It is found out that freshwater tilapia aquaculture play an important roles to the food security of local rural poor because of its provision of high-quality food, generation of cash incomes, available food supply to local markets, especially, in the context of inadequate supply of livestock protein sources due to burning issues of epidemics such as bird flu, blue ear and foot and mouth diseases. The remaining problems of local tilapia fish farms are also known as efficient resource utilization, and enhancement of farm sustainability through infrastructure construction and (farming) technology innovations.