The mouth-watering delicacies made out of shrimps may soon disappear from dining tables all over India. Thousands of shrimp farmers in Tamil Nadu are facing uncertainty due to the callous approach of bureaucrats and politicians towards some of the burning issues which have not been resolved in spite of frequent appeals.
“The sector, which used to earn more than 400 per cent profit till last the decade is facing a serious crisis because of high input costs and falling international prices. The authorities and farmers should sit together and work out a solution immediately,” said Mohammed Rafi, former senior scientist of Centre for Advanced Studies in Marine Biology (CASMB), Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu.
V Balasubramanian, president, Tamil Nadu Coastal Aqua Farmers Federation, said 50,000 families were dependent on shrimp farming in Nagapattinam district alone. “We launched shrimp farming in fallow lands along the tail end of Cauvery River which remained unused because of non-availability of water. Shrimp farming was found to be one of the ideal poverty-alleviation programmes in the region. There are 2,500 shrimp farms spread across 6,000 hectares all over Tamil Nadu. All these farms are on the verge of closure due to high cost of production and fall in demand in international market,” said Balasubramanian.
Shrimp farmers in Tamil Nadu used to produce 40,000 tonnes shrimp annually. “These undeveloped coastal districts used to earn foreign exchange worth `1,400 crore per year though we did not get any incentives from the State or Central Governments,” S Jayaraman, another shrimp farmer.
The issue and renewal of licences have become a nightmarish experience for these farmers. “Seven State Government departments are involved in the licencing process. lower level politicians are playing havoc with this sector. They charge `1 lakh for each farm. Sometime, they charge even `2 lakh per farm,” said one of the shrimp farmers who did not want his name to be quoted. Though there are organisations like CIBA, Aquaculture Authority and CIFNET for directing the farmers to produce shrimp at economical rate, farmers say that these institutions look the other way when they are approached with genuine issues.
Balasubramanian said one of the urgent needs of the farmers was that the Government should lower the import duty of materials used in shrimp farming. “Most of the farms export 100 per cent of their products and hence it is mandatory that the import duty of raw material is kept low,” he said. Governments in countries like China, Taiwan, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam are showering the farmers in those countries with incentives and tax concessions while we are forced to operate with stringent regulations and import duties. We do not have a level playing field,” said Balasubramanian.
Palanisamy, a farm hand in Cuddalore said the day was not far off when he might have to move over to Kerala for a job in a construction site.
“last two years have been the worst time in my life. There is no income from the shrimp farm,” he said. Interestingly, shrimps grown in ponds taste better than those caught from the ocean because of their freshness. It is the fresh shrimp which will disappear from our dining tables unless the Government comes forward to help farmers.