Govt urged to stop supply of substandard prawn seed

Ongole : The members of the Prakasam district Prawn Farmers Association demanded the government and the officials to stop the hatcheries supplying of poor and substandard quality seed of the Monodon Black Tiger Shrimp, and provide compensation to the farmers who suffered losses.

The committee members of the Prakasam district Prawn Farmers Association conducted a meeting at their office in Ongole on Wednesday.

The association president Duggineni Gopinath said that the farmers are cultivating prawns in about 27,000 acres in the district. He said that they have been producing the Vannamei variety of the prawns for more than five years, but suffered heavy losses.

So, farmers opted for the farming of Monodon Black Tiger prawns for the last two years in 12,000 acres.

He explained that the hatcheries supplied the Monodon seed this summer, but they didn’t show any growth, leaving the farmers in heavy losses.

Prawn farmers are again preparing the ponds for cultivation in the monsoon, but are forced into a situation unable to make decisions of a variety of prawn seed. He demanded the government to take the initiative to stop the hatcheries supplying inferior quality seed to the farmers and provide compensation to them for the losses in the last season.

He requested the officials to make sure quality prawn seed is available to them and see if they receive a support price of Rs 240 for 100 counts of the Vannamei variety.

The association secretary Kunturi Subbareddy, honorary president Pamidi Subbarayudu, vice-presidents S Anjibabu, Narne Ramesh Babu, assistant secretaries Ramesh Reddy, Sk Salaam, M Venkateswarlu, Narne Satish Babu, U Naresh Varma and others were present.