How should the direction of Pacific white shrimp farming development be chosen?

If development is a kind of harvest, then transformation is a kind of innovation for sustained development, and both development and transformation require paying a price! White shrimp farming has always been an industry of high-risk investment, high-benefit returns, and the integration of capital intensity and technology intensity into one, which dooms us to the impossibility of treating it with the traditional, backward smallholder production mindset. The perfect combination of modern scientific farming technology and the natural ecological environment is the only way out for successful Pacific white shrimp farming! Everyone knows that the past 10 years have also been the ten years in which white shrimp went from rapid development to difficult transformation in the Chinese market. Along the way, there has been more failure than success, more tears than laughter, and more hardship and worry than hope and struggle. If development is a kind of harvest, then transformation is a kind of innovation for sustained development, and both development and transformation require paying a price! White shrimp farming has never had a model to follow, nor can it only “rely on heaven for food.” Traditional farming thinking, management methods, and the facility layout of shrimp ponds all need innovation and renovation, and all need upgrading and replacement. Now there is a transitional stage, and that is when your farming must decide whether to turn left or turn right: turning left means developing toward the intensive, factory-style high-level pond intensive farming management model, following the conceptual principles of green, controllable, and ecological shrimp farming, increasing the standardized technical renovation of farming ponds, innovating concepts, advocating prevention-and-control shrimp farming, focusing on solving problems systematically and fundamentally, creating shrimp farming benefits from the value chain of the ecosystem, and having the reform courage to believe that man can conquer nature! The practice of clinging only to the traditional little plot of land and relying on credit sales from seedlings to feed to shrimp medicine to maintain the production and operation state of shrimp farming will no longer work! White shrimp farming has always been an industry of high-risk investment, high-benefit returns, and the integration of capital intensity and technology intensity into one, which dooms us to the impossibility of treating it with the traditional, backward smallholder production mindset. The perfect combination of modern scientific farming technology and the natural ecological environment is the only way out for successful Pacific white shrimp farming!

Turning left, the work we must first do well now is: the technical renovation of standardized high-level ponds and the construction of a green, ecological prevention-and-control shrimp farming system. For the standardized renovation of high-level ponds, local standards can be referenced. For example, the Hainan Provincial Local Standard DB46/T37-2004 "Pollution-free Food: Technical Specifications for Pacific White Shrimp High-level Pond Farming." The construction of a green, ecological prevention-and-control shrimp farming system includes two aspects: first, following the farming concept of “culturing algae with bacteria,” and using enzyme bacteria technology products to build a stable pond water ecosystem suitable for white shrimp growth. To farm shrimp, first farm water; “farming water” means first culturing a good bacteria-algae phase. Only by culturing a good bacteria-algae phase can water color be better stabilized, the buffering capacity of the water body be improved overall, and shrimp stress-related and infectious diseases be prevented and controlled. Fertilizing water and cultivating algae means building a good bacteria-algae phase and solving the problems of difficult water fertilization and water color easily turning clear after being fertilized; regulating water and culturing algae means solving the problems of stabilizing the bacteria-algae phase, effectively maintaining the dynamic balance of the beneficial bacteria-algae phase, and ensuring normal alternating growth and reproduction of new and old bacteria and algae. Building a good bacteria-algae phase is the prerequisite; stabilizing the bacteria-algae phase is the goal. Bacteria and algae are mutually interactive. We advocate the concept of “culturing algae with bacteria” in order first to establish a strong biological barrier of beneficial bacteria, so as to better inhibit the growth and reproduction of harmful bacteria! Only by suppressing bacteria with bacteria can we better prevent and control the damage of pathogenic bacteria to shrimp and algae plants; at the same time, it can effectively mineralize organic matter in the water body, continuously provide nutrient salts for the growth of beneficial algae, promote the rapid and directional reproduction of beneficial algae into a population advantage, and inhibit the excessive growth of harmful algae such as blue-green algae and naked dinoflagellates. This is a complex process of reconstructing the ecosystem. Without the synergistic effect of multiple nutrient components with high activity and powerful functions produced by fermentation through enzyme bacteria technology, this ecosystem reconstruction project cannot be done or done well! Especially under water environment conditions where the bacteria-algae phase has become seriously unbalanced, the water body is trending toward eutrophication, and heavy metals have seriously exceeded standards, enzyme bacteria technology products (water-fertilizing and water-culturing products) appear even more important and efficient for the reconstruction of the pond water ecosystem. Second, the construction of a prevention-and-control system targeting the shrimp animal itself for stress-related diseases and infectious diseases: shrimp diseases are caused by nothing more than two sources: environmental stress-related diseases and viral cross-infection. Environmental stress-related diseases are the most common and also the most widespread diseases. First, changes in climate and the water ecological environment (changes in the concentration of algae phase, bacteria phase, salinity, water temperature, pH value, hardness and alkalinity, ammonia nitrogen, nitrite, and other harmful substances) produce stressors; stressors induce stress responses in shrimp; stress responses cause shrimp to consume large amounts of energy and vitamins while producing a series of pathological reactions, such as liver enlargement, swimming at the pond edge, bottom exhaustion, red legs, red antennae, and white turbid muscle. To eliminate stressors, the most fundamental and effective method is first to maintain the stability of the water bacteria-algae phase! Unstable bacteria-algae phase caused by climate or water nutrient imbalance leading to water color changes (sudden mass death of algae, water turning clear or turbid) is the most fundamental cause of stressors. A change in the bacteria-algae phase means everything will change, and all problems may arise! In water color maintenance, stability must override everything! At present, more problems occur during the farming stage from stocking to ~30 days. Once the water algae phase changes, liver enlargement and dead shrimp appear, which places higher demands on the 30-day water-culturing and algae-protecting work. Second, energy and vitamin products should be supplemented into the water body in a timely manner, so that shrimp can quickly recover vitality after stress and the occurrence of stress-related diseases can be reduced. Second, mineral elements in the water body should be supplemented regularly or promptly, so as to effectively maintain water hardness and meet the needs of normal molting and shell hardening in shrimp. Maintain the osmotic pressure inside and outside cells, effectively activate cell metabolic enzymes, promote shrimp absorption and utilization of nutrients, improve immune function, and restore vital activity. These three basic prevention-and-control measures complement one another and promote one another. There are two methods for preventing and controlling viral cross-infection: first, suppressing bacteria with bacteria, regularly splashing beneficial microbial preparations such as Bdellovibrio, lactic acid bacteria, nitrifying bacteria, polymyxa bacteria, and compound Bacillus, which on the one hand can purify and optimize water quality, and at the same time reproduce into a dominant population of beneficial microorganisms, establishing a firm biological barrier that can effectively inhibit the reproduction and growth of harmful pathogens such as fungi and viruses and their invasion of aquatic animals such as shrimp and crabs; second, regularly or according to different situations applying potassium monopersulfate compound salt bottom modifiers, active iodine plus traditional Chinese medicine preparations, stable chlorine dioxide, antiviral Chinese herbal bottom conditioners, and so on, to effectively kill and control the damage of Vibrio and viruses to shrimp. Turning right is mainly aimed at the problem of how to replan farming for aged and acidified earthen pond conditions and for smallholders with only a little more than a small plot. Earthen pond farming is not entirely without merit. High output value is often directly proportional to high input. High-level ponds cannot do it, but you cannot follow old conventions. Now the state has such a policy, namely “targeted poverty alleviation.” The method is company plus aquaculture cooperative plus farming households, and contiguous area is required to be 100 mu so that the project can be filed and declared. After successful declaration, the state allocates poverty alleviation funds to support contiguous renovation of shrimp ponds, separate water intake and drainage routes, and replan and uniformly manage shrimp ponds; in terms of technical support, a shrimp medicine or feed company takes the lead, the cooperative is responsible for guidance and operations, unifying farming management thinking, unifying production management models, and unifying the purchase and sales channels of seedlings, feed, and shrimp medicine, developing toward a one-stop direction of production, technical guidance, and sales services. When there are difficulties, the cooperative coordinates relief. I think this is a new direction worth looking forward to. Before that, trying fish-shrimp polyculture and winter greenhouse farming is also a way out. Low output value does not mean low returns, but you must first learn to change yourself and do your own part well. Only through change is there a way out. In short, whether turning left or turning right, the white shrimp farming industry will enter a completely new era of transformation. Intensive and factory-style shrimp farming methods are accelerating their expansion. The foreseeable scenario for future factory-style shrimp farming is: small-area (about 3-4 mu each) high-standard high-level ponds will be built in contiguous blocks, with 40-100 mu as a scale control unit; within one control unit, intake pipes and drainage pipes are strictly separated, there are modern intake filtration systems and farming wastewater treatment systems, and all wastewater produced by farming units will be recycled; filtered intake water does not directly enter farming ponds, but first enters storage ponds, undergoes biological purification, and after the bacteria-algae phase is well cultured is transferred into farming ponds. A 100-mu farming unit is equipped with two 10-mu storage ponds. All farming ponds use integrated computer control and management of each production link…… All of these are what we greatly look forward to! There is also another scenario I mentioned earlier: the state adopts a targeted poverty alleviation policy and, through the method of company + farming cooperative + farming households, organically links everyone together and adopts an integrated, intensive farming management method. All you farming households present here, in the future you will still be a farming household, but all production management activities will not be isolated! You need farming water, and the cooperative will call up for you in advance a disinfected, biologically purified and optimized farming water source. All your production management links will be brought under the cooperative's control and management, and at the same time you will receive more systematic and more scientific production management training. You are not only a farming household, but a cooperative member, both an individual boss and a cooperative member shareholder, but there is one point: you must have a cooperative member qualification certificate…… All of this should be our outlook for scientific shrimp farming, and all of it first benefits from the development of science and technology and the strong support of relevant state policies!