Assessment of the impacts of social capital on the profit of shrimp farming production in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam

Abstract

This study assesses capital assets and factors influencing on farmers’ decision to participate in social networks, and how these contribute to and affect household’s profits of small-scale shrimp farmers in four coastal provinces in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. Data was collected through observations, and informal discussions and interviews with 350 small-scale shrimp farmer households. The results show that farmer’s age, education of household head, dependency ratio, village residence time, village population density are important factors influencing positively on shrimp farmers´ participation in social networks. The study also shows that contacts with fisheries association, traders, wholesale agencies, trust, household savings, labors’ education, household’s agricultural land size, post larvae quality and equipment significantly influenced on the profit variable with 1–10%. The results also indicate that a 10% increase in social capital would bring an increase in household income of 3.9%.

Keywords:

• Household profits
• livelihood assets
• Mekong Delta
• shrimp farming
• social capital

Acknowledgement

The authors gratefully acknowledge the cooperation from shrimp farmers of selected districts from Ca Mau, Bac Lieu, Ben Tre and Tra Vinh provinces who participated in this study, providing data and information. The authors wish to thank Mr. Ken Phillips (Austrian volunteer at the Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, An Giang University) for language revision and Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of each selected province, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Dut and Mr. Nguyen Khoa Nguyen for their invaluable help, support and assistance during field survey, data collection and analysis for this study.