The impediments on the recovery of grass prawn aquaculture industry in Taiwan

Abstract

The grass prawn aquaculture industry in Taiwan had experienced production boom in the past which lasted for two decades. The industry collapsed and hardly recovered due to the outbreaks of shrimp viral disease since 1988. To get an inside look on how worse the situation was, this research estimated the total factor productivity (TFP) for the industry from 1986 to 1999 using 31 fishermen's panel data. Our findings showed that all TFPs have been dimming since 1989, which means that there was no better technology nor managerial skill that effectively solved the 1988 shrimp collapse. The sad truth confirms that after millions of research grants for academic and research institutes and support projects for aquafarmers, the grass prawn aquaculture industry was not revived until the present time. Thus, this research is questioning the major factors that hindered the recovery of the industry. The impediment of relief efforts comes from two places. First, the ineffective research grant system from the administration turned the catastrophe to a permanent loss for the grass prawn aquaculture industry. Second is the irresponsible field management by numerous myopic profit-oriented aquafarmers. In the end, the grass prawn aquaculture industry needs both a total start-up from the research's development and responsible administrative institutions for successful revival.