Vijayawada: Fish feed ordinance to help aqua farmers

Vijayawada: The state Cabinet has decided to issue an ordinance for the introduction of Andhra Pradesh Fish Feed (Quality Control) Act, 2020 which would be helpful for the aqua farmers to protect them from adulterated and fake fish feed, said Tumma Vijay Kumar Reddy, commissioner of the information and public relations.

He said in a statement here on Wednesday that the aqua farmers suffered heavy loss due to the adulterated and poor quality fish feed in the past and the new enactment would help the farmers to a great extent. The commissioner said that Rs 17,000 crore aqua feed industry in the state is serving the aqua farmers who cultivate aqua produce in 1.95 lakh hectare in the nine coastal districts. Noticeably, 66.67 per cent prawn exports in the country is from Andhra Pradesh, he pointed out.

He said that the state is exporting 20 lakh metric tonne fish every year. "The aqua farmers have been incurring loss due to the adulterated fish feed with urea and other harmful material. There is no control over these law-breakers and it is high time an enactment was brought to curb these activities," he said.

He claimed that the ordinance was the first of its kind in the country as no State brought out such act.

The ordinance prohibits the making of fish feed without licence and the existing fish feed makers were given four months time to fall in line and obtain licence. The licence fee ranges from Rs 10,000 to Rs 2.5 lakh depending upon the capacity of the plant. The violators would be prosecuted and the property would be attached.