INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT - Somsak Sangpradit

I have four ponds with a total area of around 20 rais. I have done shrimp farming for nine or ten years. I had both losses and gains that are quite normal for the shrimp farm. But with my last crop in January and February, I lost all my four ponds because of the disease "red body white spot". This disease cannot be cured. I could only throw all the shrimp away. I have to start my next crop this March or April. I have to make a profit from the next crop to compensate for the loss of the last crop.

How did the disease come about? How can you deal with it in your next crop?

This disease "red body white spot" depends on the environment. If it occurs, it cannot be cured.

How can it be prevented?

You have to select the seeds carefully.

How can you know which seed is good?

You have to select the seed that have been laboratory checked. Sometimes even lab-checked seed still fails. The problem is with those birds and crabs. We have no method to solve this problem. The infected shrimp likes to lie down in the shallow part of the pond. The shrimp body turns red. It looks like people who have skin disease. With my last crop, the shrimp survived only 23 days.

Despite the high risk, why do you still continue with the shrimp farm?

There is a high risk with the disease "red body white spot", but the attraction of the shrimp farm is the high profit. If you invest 150,000 baht, you could make a profit of 200,000-300,000 baht. But it depends on the fate. Sometimes shrimp had a disease outbreak, but in the pond next to that, the shrimp were normal. It is up to your fortune. It is not because of pond preparation.

Can you tell us about the future of shrimp farms for the next five to ten years?

I think for the next five years, if the gasoline used for farming or the shrimp feed raise the price, the shrimp will become more expensive. The shrimp culture could fail because the cost would be higher which would create less profit or even loss.

How do you normally prepare the ponds before stocking?

After harvesting, I left the pond dry for one month and took out all the materials in the ponds like aerator floats and used tractors to push all the sludge. I gathered it out there, and then earned about 10 sacks/rai. After seven days, I pumped the water in and killed the carrier with chlorine, formalin or iodine. I left it for 15 days and then fertilized the pond to yield plankton, so that there were enough plankton for the shrimp fry. For the shrimp seed, you need to stock only laboratory checked seed to your ponds.