INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT - Suwat Sengsote

Can you tell us about your last crop?

I had disease "red body white spot "outbreak in my farm after a few months of stocking. It was three months exactly. That disease cannot be cured. If it occurs, you could not get all the costs back. I lost 300,000 to 400,000 bahts per pond, which included the costs of gasoline, electricity, labor, and materials.

Did you get some cost back?

Yes, I did get about half of my cost back.

Was this for your last crop?

Yes, my last crop.

Can you tell us how much?

With these two ponds, I spent about 800,000 bahts, but I got back about 400,000 bahts. Many shrimp died.

After you got the disease, how did you manage the water?

After harvesting, I did no special treatment but did the usual procedure. It depends on the seed selection. You need to get disease-free seed and have it laboratory checked. If we get bad seed, it can survive only a month.

Can you tell us how to manage the water? Is there any problem with the environment? How do you discharge or get the water?

For the discharging of water, some farms just drain the water or sludge to the sea or canal, even if they have the disease. That makes the water unsuitable, degrades the environment, and causes failure in shrimp culture. That's why we have to spend more cost to treat the water before using it for shrimp culture.

Please tell us how you managed the water before using it in your farm?

First, I dried the pond and lined it with lime material, marl, or dolomite. Then I pumped the water in and left the pond for three days so that all the unwanted fish eggs or wild shrimp eggs could hatch. Then I treated the pond with chlorine or formalin. I left the pond for another 15 days and then started fertilizing to gain plankton before stocking the shrimp seed.

How can you describe the shrimp farming business?

You can lose or win in this business. It's a kind of risk. You have a chance of about 50% to either lose or win. If you raise shrimp for only two months and get disease outbreak, you have to lose everything. It is risky. You have to spend a lot of money on electricity and shrimp feed. The shrimp price is not certain. It is up and down, depending on the market. If you harvest when the price is high, maybe you can get some profit. But if you harvest during the low price, you have no profit or perhaps a loss. The shrimp price is uncertain but the cost of electricity, gasoline, and shrimp feed is always high.

Please tell me why you decided to use this product?

I use this product so that I don't need to use any chemicals or antibiotics. I use only one treatment per crop. It also helps control the color of the water. We really like to avoid using chemicals and antibiotics.