Officials of the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) have appealed to small and marginal farmers to form societies and enrol with the authority.
MPEDA and Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Aquaculture (RGCA), a research wing of the organisation, conducted a five-day training programme for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe aqua farmers on ‘Eco Sustainable and Development Scopes in Aquaculture’ at Manikonda in Krishna district.
Speaking at the valedictory of the training session on Saturday, Assistant Director (Export Promotion) Archiman Lahiri said many small and medium farmers were taking up fish, prawn, and crab culture in traditional methods.
‘But middlemen are deceiving the farmers by supplying seed at higher price and giving them poor quality seed, leading to less production. Many farmers are in the grip of middlemen in villages,” said Mr. Lahiri.
MPEDA Deputy Director (Aquaculture) S. Kandan advised the farmers to follow scientific methods for sustainable aquaculture and for maintaining ecosystem.
During the field visit, Dr. Kandan taught the farmers better practices in aquaculture.
“If farmers raise shrimp by maintaining sufficient water levels, oxygen in tanks, sufficient seed in a tank by supplying quality seed, they can prevent viruses and achieve good production,” he said.
“Some agents are making aqua farmers do captive culture by investing on ponds. The middlemen will keep the farmers in the dark on the market price, sell the produce to export companies at a good price, and give some amount to the farmer,” Mr. Kandan said, and asked the small farmers to avail themselves of the schemes introduced by the government by forming societies.
Field visits to farmers
“We arranged field visits to the farmers, showed hatcheries and shrimp at different stages. Some thousands of farmers are doing traditional farming in coastal districts. If they take to scientific farming, they can minimise lossess,” said RGCA Assistant Programme Manager B. Appala Naidu.
Junior Technical Officer P. Srinivasulu said that the MPEDA would supply Specific Pathogen Free (SPF) seed to the registered farmers, visit the ponds and give necessary suggestions for yielding quality production.
National Centre for Sustainable Aquaculture (NaCSA) Field Manager N. Ravindra, Fisheries Development Officer Raghava Reddy, and Field Assistant Suman acted as mentors.
Aqua farmers asked to form societies, enrol with MPEDA
Source : The Hindu
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