Prawn culture projects to help farmers in East

By P. Krishnaswamy

The Government has started large scale prawn culture projects in the Eastern Province with an extent of 2,500 hectares earmarked for distribution among prospective investors and also started a project in a 120 acre land, Minister of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development Dr. Rajitha Senaratne told the Sunday Observer.

The poor people of the area will benefit under the prawn farm development project on which the government has already spent Rs. 93 M. Prawn-rearing ponds have been given to poor families in the area at the rate of a pond for each family with 75,000 prawn post-larvae (PLs) for stocking. They are entitled to a Rs. 250,000 loan on a nominal rate of interest (5.5 percent), Minister Senaratne said, adding that the net profit from a pond in a harvest is about Rs. 300,000. Explaining the measures initiated by his Ministry to develop the industry in the province, he said the hatchery for producing prawn PLs was launched in April 2012 and given to the private sector for management on a fifty-fifty profit sharing basis. It has now started producing PLs. So this year the Ministry started the prawn farm and stocked the ponds. Investors can now start prawn-culture projects in the Eastern Province, the Minister said.

He said: "There are 37 ponds and five nurseries in the Government's project in the 120 acre land. We have stocked 75,000 PLs in each pond. It is a good project and we get the necessary brackish water from the lagoon. The contaminated water will be discharged to the lagoon after being rid of all contamination. The contamination will be removed on the way by milk fish and oysters which we are breeding. They absorb all contaminated particles when the water is discharged. We can also market the milk fish and oysters. The water will be purified by the time it reaches the lagoon.

" Prawn culture project was very much affected in the Puttalam district due to the white-spot disease. Therefore we intend to shift the industry to the Eastern Province. We will not allow any more prawn farms in the Puttalam district. The maximum harvest from the district is 4,500 metric tons which we have already achieved.

"Even the East was affected by the disease in the late '80s and the farmers had to abandon the farms. They faced many financial problems as they had taken bank loans amounting to Rs.329 M and the interest had accumulated to Rs. 1,778 M" the Minister said.

He said "we held meetings with the banks with the help of the Central Bank Governor. Our discussions with the banks did not bear fruit. Finally, I discussed the matter with the Central Bank Governor and persuaded the banks to write-off the interests amounting to Rs. 1,778 M. We got the sanction of the Central Bank to allow the farmers the facility to repay the loans in instalments over a six month period and qualify to get another loan.

"All the prawns harvested at these farms will be exported because there is a good market not only for prawns but for cuttlefish and crabs too. By the end of the year or the next our exports will be high because in addition to the farms in Puttalam, we are setting up farms in the Eastern Province.

"The people of the Eastern Province need a prawn processing factory. Without a processing factory in the province, they have to bring their harvests to Colombo for processing and export. It is expensive and time consuming. So my target next year is to start a prawn processing factory in the Eastern Province.

The infrastructure for the industry will be complete with the hatchery and the processing factory" the Minister said.

"World prawn production has increased in the recent past and Sri Lanka's share of this lucrative market is negligible with a contribution of less than 0.2 percent. Shrimp farming has great potential to diversify and secure income in rural Sri Lanka" he said.