Myanmar with its coastline length of about 3,000 km has developed a significant culture of Penaeus monodon since 1978. In particular in the western coastal areas, farmers developed a natural trap and hold system in rather large ponds (50-100 ha), where natural stocking was practiced during high tide through sluice gates. The system was based on low inputs and permitted annual harvests of up to 120 kg/ha of shrimps, along with fish and other shellfish (DoF 2019). Domesticated reproduction of P. monodon and thus semi-intensive and intensive culture started in 1986. At the end of the 1990s, the cultivated area comprised approx. 90.000 ha with a peak production of 9,720 tonnes in 1996 (source Myanmar Fisheries Federation-MFF, 2019).
The culture of P. monodon has faced several constraints in the last two decades. Severe overfishing of the wild coastal stocks caused a decline of naturally available post larvae and forced farmers to switch to an "extensive plus" system with additional stocking of PLs from hatcheries. However, the occurrence of diseases, the destruction caused by the Cyclones Nargis (2008) and Giri (2010), an erratic supply of PLs from disfunctional government hatcheries plus the introducution of L. vannamei culture led to a rapid decline of the culture of P. monodon. Today, exact data are not available, but a few clusters of P. monodon farms still manage to exist in Rakhine State, Ayeyarwady and Yangon Regions. In the latter, the culture of P. monodon is currently receiving support from the Myanmar Sustainable Aquaculture Programme, which is a 5 year bilateral development cooperation programme funded by the European Union and the Federal Republic of Germany and is implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Technische Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the Myanmar Department of Fisheries (DoF) which commenced in December 2016.
The paper will outline the activities of MYSAP so far, which includes the planned rehabilitation of a former defunct hatchery of the University of Pathein to be turned into a national nucleus breeding centre, utilizing imported SPF broodstock and support to local hatcheries and nurseries. Certified imported disease free PLs were recently distributed to selected farms to permit farmers to go back to business. An additional boost to the sector will be the availability of locally produced Artemia cysts, due to the support of a salt farmer close to Labuta in the Ayeyarwaddy Delta, who received technical advice, support to modify existing salt ponds and a cyst drying machine (imported for Vietnam) to permit the first production of dried cysts in Myanmar at affordable prices.
A further boost to the Myanmar shrimp aquaculture sector was the decision by the European Union to permit the import of aquaculture products into the EU, which was achied with GIZ suport in 2018. The MYSAP programme further supported the designation of Myanmar Black Tiger Prawns from trap and hold systems by the Monterrey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch Programme as "Good Alternative", which should give an additional advantage for export and niche marketing efforts worldwide.