Kerala's shrimp production hit by Covid-19, farmers incur loss of Rs 308 crore: CIBA

Hit by Covid-19 pandemic, Kerala's shrimp farmers have suffered losses to the tune of Rs 308 cr, the Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture (CIBA) said. A survey by CIBA to study the impact of Covid-19 induced lockdown on shrimp aquaculture, found that the unprecedented circumstances following the pandemic led to significant reduction of shrimp production in the state up to 500 tonnes, leaving thousands jobless.

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The study also revealed that the shrimp aquaculture was hit mainly due to reduction in farming activities and cut in days of culture during the lockdown period, CIBA said in a release here on Thursday.

Difficulty in availing seeds, feeds and labours, for which Kerala depends on other states, was the major reason which disrupted the farming. In addition, price hike in farming inputs and market uncertainty worsened the situation.

"About 50 per cent of farmers gave up the practice, even after they prepared ponds prior to the farming, as they faced difficulty in accessing quality seed and uncertainty over the culture and market. In addition to constraints in sourcing seeds due to logistic issues, increased feed cost and difficulty in accessing other farming requirements caused a substantial reduction in farming area to the tune of 30 per cent," it said.

The Chennai headquartered research institute noted that the sector was badly hit as the lockdown restrictions affected transportation of shrimp feeds from Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh which caused a price hike in feed.

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Fearing larger financial losses over disease outbreak, farmers who had a standing stock resorted to 'panic harvesting' of small-sized shrimps and sold at lower prices. Farmers were forced to do panic harvesting as diseases were reported in about 10 per cent of farming areas and aqua- laboratories and professional services remained unavailable to the farmers due to the lockdown, badly affecting the pond and health management of animals.

According to the study, only 10 per cent of farming ventures completed 80 days of culture, while around 25 per cent of panic-stricken farmers harvested their crop within 30 days and another 15 per cent of farmers did the harvest within 80 days.

Shrimp healthcare products including nutritional supplements, probiotics and pond management inputs are crucial for successful shrimp farming.

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Throwing light on the huge rise of unemployment in Kerala's shrimp farming sector, CIBA said around 12,000 people engaged in shrimp farming, processing and distribution became jobless for one season (6 months), making a loss of around Rs 108 cr. Shrimp supply chain heavily depends upon labour and offers a wide range of job opportunities in farms, hatcheries, processing units, manufacturing and marketing sectors and wholesale and retail businesses etc. Director of CIBA, Dr K K Vijayan said it was estimated a probable loss of 40 per cent in Indian shrimp sector due to Covid-19 lockdown and the total loss in value terms was estimated to be 1.60 billion USD.

"However, both the Central and State government stepped in to take proactive measures such as notifying aquaculture as an essential activity, easing the restrictions for the movement of farming inputs and people and ensuring minimum procurement price for the farmed shrimp, he said, adding that additional efforts are required to implement the plans at the ground-level and follow-up the initiatives using government mechanism.

"In Kerala, shrimp farming is practised in about 3144 ha with an average production of 1500 tonnes per annum. The state is dependent on the east especially Anadhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu for accessing seed, feed and other supplements.

Hence, inter-state movement of seed, feed and farmed produce for processing and export are of utmost importance for sustaining shrimp aquaculture in the state, he said.