Bleak future stares at aqua ryots

​Akiveedu: Nearly four decades after aqua farms established in Krishna and West Godavari districts, the farmers turned jittery over the impending crisis to the sector. Everyday 2,000 tonnes of fish are exported to West Bengal, Tripura, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and other states from the two districts. The glory of aqua industry started slowly fading for several reasons.

The main source of income for the farmers was from exports. The exports see a downward trend with aqua culture gained foothold in states like Uttar Pradesh and Assam. While the fish seed and feed need to be developed to meet international standards to avoid fishes contacting diseases when they grow up, the farmers restricted their farming to a few varieties of fish. While there is scope for select from 200 varieties of fish to attract the exporters, the farmers have failed to do so far.

The local consumers have been asking fish at a price of Rs 105 per kg, the production cost rose to Rs 115. The same crisis affecting exports as the process involved Rs 25 per kg for export of the fish. During their four decades of aqua culture, the farmers hardly tried to cultivate fishes like Salmon and Cochima. While the former costs Rs 2,000 per kg, Cochima is available for Rs 1,000 per kg.

Norway was producing Salmon fish to meet international demand for such fish varieties. The other variety grows only in salt water. The farmers would face bleak future, if they failed to widen their export limits beyond India. Only international exports would help them to tide over the possible crisis, the scientists predict.