Aqua farmers engaged in Vannamei shrimp farming are a worried lot due to high incidence of ‘white spot disease’.
They are keeping their fingers crossed about the alternative species to Vannamei to reuse ponds which were abandoned earlier.
“Vannamei farming has been stopped in at least 12,000 acres in Krishna district alone since early this year”, said aqua farmer T. Lankeswara Rao, who took up Vannamei farming in his 30-acre pond in Mopidevi mandal.
Sources told The Hindu that at least 300 to 400 illegal pond-cum-hatcheries are involved in supplying the Vannamei seed along the coastline between Visakhapatnam and Nellore.
Scientist of Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture at Chennai, J. Shyam Dayal has said the incidence of white spot disease was rampant in Vannamei seed, developed in the ponds instead of hatcheries.
Meanwhile, farmers alleged that Coastal Aquaculture Authority has done nothing to check illegal hatcheries, which do not guarantee survival percentage of the seed. “The Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) has promoted Vannamei of Hawai instead of Indian varieties such as India White Shrimp and Asian Sea Bass. It ensured a greater market for Hawai-based hatcheries, leaving Andhra farmers in a great loss”, said G. Saida Rao, former Director of Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI), Kochi.
“Asian Sea Bass, another variety meant for brackish water ponds, can be an alternative to Vannamei but the MPEDA’s Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Aquaculture is failing to promote it in Andhra,” Mr. Saida Rao said.
Incidence of ‘white spot disease’ is rampant in Vannamei seed, says scientist