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4 Backyard Hatcheries and Small Scale Shrimp and Prawn Farming in Thailand69costly equipment; also the operation costs were relatively low because of the simpletechniques and small scale of the operation. These innovations demonstrated theresourcefulness of small farmers and their abilities to take ideas for developmentand modify them to suit the local conditions. Farmers were eager to experiment andcontinue learning from their own mistakes. For instance, the use of hypersalinewater from coastal salt farms was found to be more cost effective when transportedby truck and subsequently diluted to the desired salinity with disinfected freshwater.More importantly, this hypersaline water is pathogen-free (i.e. virus free). Thebusiness is organized with these hatcheries purchasing P. monodon or P. vannameinauplii from nauplii producers who are located near the open sea areas (better waterquality and circulation assist in the maturation process). For Macrobrachium ,hatchery operators use spawners both from grow-out farms and from the wild. Thepresent success of Thailand in shrimp and prawn industry is testimony to the persistenceand ingenuity of Thai farmers in utilizing applied science to its utmostpotential.As mentioned earlier, small hatcheries run by family owner-operators are usuallymore efficient than larger scale hatcheries, which are operated using hiredlabor. This family manpower is more flexible with mainly family members, such asthe husband, wife or children assisting as needed after school hours. Backyardhatcheries originally started as a secondary occupation for rice farmers or fishers,but soon these activities yielded more income than the primary occupation. Thedecrease in price of shrimp fry caused by the spread of these backyard hatcheriesalso helped to stimulate the rapid expansion of grow-out ponds. This family businessapproach contrasts sharply with the large scale high capital cost hatcheries inwhich the high fixed costs of wages, power supply, supporting facilities, and otheroverheads made closure, even for relatively short periods, very difficult.Backyard hatcheries, in contrast, could discontinue production when disease orother serious problems occurred, even for relatively long periods, without unduehardship when small scale farmers could switch back to their primary occupationsof rice farming or fishing. It turned out that periodic discontinuation of the backyardoperations was, in fact, useful in checking disease by facilitating the reconditioning,drying, and disinfection of tanks, ponds, aeration, and water systems.These concepts are summarized in the Farm Performance Survey (ADB/NACA1997) , in which Thai small-scale operations yielded more benefits than mediumand large scale operations in Indonesia, Taiwan, and Philippines, respectively(Table 4.1 ).To complement the backyard hatcheries operations, a variety of ancillary locallydeveloped farm equipment and supply operators developed as well (such as aeratorsor paddle wheels, water pumps, harvesting sets, commercial larval and adult feeds,probiotic products, and miscellaneous farm supplies). Associated with this was thedevelopment of a variety of ancillary businesses such as broodstock suppliers, naupliiproducers, PLs distribution, pond preparation, PCR (a disease diagnosis tool) andwater quality testing services, harvesting, pond construction, and supply of heavymachines for pond construction. These ancillary businesses developed as differentoperators identified new entry points in the previously large scale operations.