GUWAHATI: Under the World Bank aided Assam Agri-Business and Rural Transformation Project (APART), the Department of Fisheries, Assam has started freshwater prawn polyculture demonstrations with the technical support of World Fish, Malaysia. The demonstration will be taken up in 80 beneficiary ponds covering 21.54 hectares in 3 districts, namely Kamrup (M), Nalbari and Goalpara.
Minister of Fisheries, Government of Assam, Parimal Suklabaidya, formally released the prawn seeds and distributed inputs during the function held in Bagibari Village of Kamrup (M) on August 31.
“The net annual profit from 2.0 Bigha carp polyculture is 1.30 Lakh, where the expected annual profit of Polyculture of Freshwater prawns with Carps is about 1.80 Lakh, where the additional profit by stocking freshwater prawns in 2.0 Bigha water area is about 0.50 Lakh,” said the minister, explaining the project to the gathering present.
Freshwater prawn farming is an environmental friendly aquaculture farming system and Assam’s agro-climatic condition is suitable for freshwater prawn production. Carp-prawn farming will flourish in a big way and will boost the confidence of the rural youths, mainly the migrated labours due to COVID pandemic for coming forward in freshwater prawn-fish polyculture system, the Minister added.
Carp-prawn polyculture is practised based on the principle that the food materials available in the water body are fully utilized, waste is minimised and profit per unit area is increased. In this practice, the culture of prawns is done along with fishes in the ponds. The freshwater prawn has a very high market value, is preferred by consumers in Assam besides having good export potential.
Traditional farming of freshwater prawn is practised in different parts of the country in a very limited area relying on riverine seed collections and seeds from natural resources. Commercial freshwater prawn seed production in many the coastal states have now made it possible to expand the freshwater prawn farming in different parts of the country. Giant freshwater prawn (Macrobrachiumrosenbergii) is introduced in the APART Project demonstrations along with Catla, Rohu, and Grass Carp in polyculture system.
