KANNUR: Aquaculture in the district has been showing a revival trend with the Matsya Keralam project now entering its third phase. The State government had launched the project to diversify aquaculture for a bigger harvest of fish, shrimps and mussels farmed inland.
Beneficiaries of the project in the district are expecting a good harvest in the second phase taken up during 2009-10. As the harvest of shrimp has just begun, they are confident of a better yield than last year's in the first phase.
Figures provided by the Fisheries Department officials here show that the yield in the first phase was 60 tonnes of shrimp, mussels and fin-fish. The yield is expected to increase to 80 tonnes this year under the second phase.
While the beneficiaries of the project under the first phase were 71 individuals and six groups, their number rose to 83 and 11 in the second phase. In the first phase, the total area utilised was 127.5 hectares. The area was extended to 178.48 ha in the second phase. The officials hope that an additional 100 ha can be brought under aquaculture in the third phase.
“The Matsya Keralam project has given a new lease of life to crisis-hit aquaculture activities in the district as elsewhere, as shrimp farmers have never received benefits such as free shrimp seeds, shrimp feed at subsidised rates and insurance coverage that they are now getting under the project,” says Dinesh Cheruvat, Deputy Director of Fisheries here. The total shrimp production in the district will be anywhere near 1,000 tonnes if 1,000 ha of the Kattampally wetland areas can be utilised for brackish water aquaculture, he adds.
The Matsya Keralam project, which envisages creation of new employment opportunities and increase in exports of fish products, among other things, has been received well by aquaculture farmers who have been hit by heavy losses following viral diseases that adversely affected shrimp farms in the region.
Overcoming stagnation
“The Matsya Keralam project has helped shrimp farmers in the region overcome the stagnation in the field following the diseases,” says T. Manoharan, shrimp farmer and beneficiary. Winner of the district shrimp farmer award for 2010, he says he harvested 1,360 kg of shrimps from his one-hectare farm in the Kannapuram panchayat on Tuesday. The yield is fetching a price of Rs.350-400 a kg, he says. The project gave fresh hope to shrimp farmers in the district, 70 per cent of whom had left their farms unused since the outbreak of diseases a few years ago, Mr. Manoharan says.
Chamandy Krishnan, another beneficiary at Thekkumbad in Kunhimangalam panchayat, echoes similar sentiments. His yield from freshwater aquaculture from his 0.88-ha farm was two tonnes of fin fish in the first phase and he expects an increase in the second phase as the harvest is about to begin.
The project is being implemented with the involvement of local bodies and various agencies including the Agency for Development of Aquaculture in Kerala and the Fish Farmers' Development Agency, among others.
Source: Hindu, 29-7-2010
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