Area under shrimp farming to increase to 5K acres

Chandigarh, February 18

With the aim of promoting shrimp farming in unused saline-affected waterlogged land and increasing area under cultivation to 5,000 acres within next five years, the Punjab Government organised a State-Level Shrimp Farming Seminar at the Demonstration Farm-cum-Training Centre at Ena Khera village of Muktsar district.

While addressing the one-day seminar, organised by the Department of Fisheries, Director and Warden, Jasvir Singh said in 2022-23, as many as 366 farmers cultivated shrimp in around 1,212 acres with a total production of about 2,400 tonnes of shrimp. Shrimp farming is being practised on saline-affected waterlogged land in Punjab, which has proved successful in increasing the income of farmers, said Jasvir Singh, adding that shrimp and fish farmers were getting income up to Rs 3 lakh from one acre, but due to the high production of shrimps internationally, the rate had fallen this year. Hence, there was a need to develop local market to sell shrimps, he said.

The government was paying special attention to this sector and has drawn up a strategy to bring 5,000 acres in the border districts under shrimp farming in the next five years.

To hit this target and understand the problems in promoting shrimp farming, the department had organised the seminar. It was attended by more than 350 farmers and traders.

Lambi MLA Gurmeet Singh Khudian, who was the chief guest, and District Planning Board chairman Sukhjinder Singh urged the farmers to bring maximum area under fish/shrimp farming, set up cold storage and processing plants by taking advantage of the government schemes.

Khudian assured the farmers that the government was trying to resolve the problems being faced by the farmers in shrimp farming. He said the government would explore possibilities of setting up local market to sell shrimps.

Seminar by fisheries dept

To understand the problems in promoting shrimp farming, the Fisheries Department organised a seminar. It was attended by more than 350 farmers and traders.