Shrimp aquaculture is an important agri-business farming system practiced with entrepreneurship approach in the coastal districts. Odisha state has a huge potential of 4.18 lakh hectare suitable for shrimp farming but utilized hardly 4% of that at present with a production of 45000 metric tonnes of shrimp due to many reasons. Access to technology, quality seed, diagnostics and farm advisory services are some of the impediments. ICAR-CIBA a Chennai based national nodal research institute for providing technology backstopping to shrimp farming has conducted its fourth edition of Shrimp Farmers Conclave in association the Department of Fisheries, Govt. of Odisha at Balasore, Odisha on 31.01.2025 to outline a roadmap progressive development of shrimp aquaculture in the state of Odisha. Over 500 shrimp and fish farmers hailing from all the coastal districts of Odisha (Kanjam to Balasore), state fisheries officials, field professionals, input dealers, exporters, bank officials, insurance companies and other pertinent stakeholders participated in the conclave. Shri. Gokulananda Mallik, Hon’ble Minister for Fisheries & Animal Resources Development, MSME, Govt. of Odisha sent his message highlighting importance of the shrimp farmers conclave for the state.
Dr.J.K.Jena, Deputy Director General-Fisheries, ICAR was the chief guest and inaugurated the conclave. He urged the farmers to produce suitable size shrimps and fishes for the domestic consumption through domestic marketing to get assured income and break the myth of shrimps are produced for the foreign consumers. He emphasized that the State Department of Fisheries and the shrimp farmers association with the help of processors should prepare a ‘shrimp production and market plan’ suggesting the phase and zone wise shrimp farming plan, what to produce for domestic market and what to produce for export and connect the potential domestic markets and processors with farmer groups. The DDG also released CIBA special publications brought out in Oriya language for the benefit of the farmers and extension workers.
Farmers are the fulcrum in any farming sector around whom the technology, inputs, services and market revolve. With regions being unique in terms of resources and production systems, region specific aquaculture planning is necessary, said Dr Kuldeep Kumar Lal, Director, ICAR-CIBA. He also laid emphasis on the best resource management practices and production systems in brackishwater aquaculture, offering CIBA’s technological solutions for the development of the sector in the state of Odisha. Dr.P.K.Sahoo, Director, ICAR-CIFA who was the Guest of Honour in the conclave underlined that the farmers valuable feedback on the technology need to be carefully considered and incorporated in refining or customizing the technology for its wider adoption.
Dr.A.Panigrahi, Principal Scientist CIBA, coordinator of the conclave in his welcome note underlined that CIBA has developed several technologies to ensure farmers’ profitability and farmers should select appropriate production system and his farm-business plan rather than just emulating fellow farmers whose resources, infrastructure and capacity are entirely different. The shrimp farming has undergone a tremendous change over the years with technological interventions. However, it is very important to ensure the financial security of the shrimp farmers. The sessions on insurance and market linkage will help farmers understand the future trends of the shrimp aquaculture, said Dr.T.Ravisankar, Principal Scientist, ICAR-CIBA.
CIBA Scientists, subject matter experts from the industry, regulatory and development departments sensitized the farmers on species diversification, disease management and nextgen production systems. A special session on shrimp crop insurance and sharing of success stories by farmers were the highlights of the conclave. The conclave served as a platform for farmer-to-farmer-horizontal learning, and building farmer networks across the districts of Odisha. An exhibition consisted of stalls from the shrimp feed, inputs, insurance and CIBA technologies was also conducted during the conclave.
Later, DDG, Fisheries, ICAR Dr. J.K.Jena inaugurated the “ multispecies backyard hatchery for brackishwater species”, established under the Scheduled Tribal Component (STC) at sahada village near Balasore, Odisha, in the presence of Mr. Rabindra Kumar Jena, former Member of Parliament, Dr.P.K.Sahoo, Director, CIFA, Dr.Kuldeep K Lal, Director CIBA, large gathering of fish farmers and other dignitaries. This hatchery would produce and supply the seeds of important brackishwater species like Bengal Cat fish, and Pearlspot etc and ensure year round seed availability for fish farming aiming towards aquaculture based livelihood development of tribal communities in the region. The visitors witnessed mud crab farming in pond and boxes and a bumper harvest of 10 tonnes of Milkfish (Chanos chanos). The DDG also handed over a sum of Rs.6.65 lakhs revenue generated to the tribal fisher group.
