Technical Efficiency of Prawn Farms in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam

Prawn culture has been playing an important economic role in Vietnam for the last two decades. The area for aquaculture is continuously expanding in the provinces of the Mekong Delta. Fisheries and aquaculture contributed 29.2 per cent to the GDP component of the agricultural sector in the Mekong Delta in 2003. However, data from previous studies shows that more than 30 per cent of the total prawn farms are experiencing economic loss. Profitability can be increased by increasing yield through development and adoption of new technologies and improvement in the economic efficiency of prawn farming operations. This paper examines the technical efficiency of prawn farming in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam using the stochastic production frontier approach. The estimated mean technical efficiency for 193 sampled prawn farms was 46 per cent. Experience in prawn farming and the age of the farmers, as well as their education, are some of the factors that were found to affect technical efficiency. The prawn farms operated by more experienced, but younger prawn growers were found to attain higher technical efficiency