Indian aquaculture farmers who did the country proud by producing excellent quality cultured shrimps for the last three years are now facing a serious threat due to the dreaded Early Mortality Syndrome, a disease which destroyed stocks in best shrimp producing countries like China, Thailand and Vietnam.
Cultured shrimps grown by aquaculture farmers in the States of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Odisha and Karnataka contributed to 77 per cent of the shrimp exported from India during the last fiscal.
India earned Rs 12,601-crore from export of marine products during April 2013 to November 2013 compared to Rs 6,720-crore during April 2012 to November 2012, according to leena Nair, chairperson, Marine Products Export Development Authority. Frozen shrimp was the major item exported in these periods.
“At a time when there is every possibility of India becoming the number one shrimp exporter in the world, we face some kind of mortality in the produce. We are yet to identify the pathogens and bacteria striking the aqua farms,” V Balasubramanian, general secretary, Prawn Farmers Federation of India, told The Pioneer.
Speaking on the sidelines of a national workshop on Early Mortality Syndrome (EMS) organised by the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India and the Bay of Bengal Programme (Inter-Governmental Organisation), Balasubramanian blamed the policy paralysis which has struck the Union Government over the threats faced by aqua farmers.
“The Government has failed to provide the farmers with quality shrimp seeds. We also do not have quality brood shrimps because of the severe restriction on imports,” he complained.
Pointing out that more than 50 per cent of the earnings through export of marine products came from shrimps grown in prawn farms, Balasubramanian said the Union Government failed to ensure the availability of loans and the quality of brood shrimps.
“Hundreds of thousands of people are engaged in aqua farming. An average employee takes home Rs 350 per day. He could be employed continuously for ten months every year. But indecisiveness is slowly destroying the industry which has the potential to be the world leader,” he said. last year the US imported majority of its shrimps from India.
However, Raja Sekhar Vundru, Joint Secretary (Fisheries) Government of India, who inaugurated the workshop, said on Monday there was no EMS threat to Indian shrimp. “The bio-security notifications issued by the Union Government are the main reason why this phenomenon was held back. Ours are the only bio-security laws which have stringent legislations, including penal sections,” said Vundru.
Experts from Thailand and Vietnam, who have first-hand experience in fighting EMS and other bacterial diseases and scientists from various research establishments and fisheries institutes in India are participating in this two-day brainstorming session to prepare a protocol to counter EMS.