Health Minister Kamineni Srinivas has lamented that the State’s fish and shrimp farmers have been given a raw deal and it is pushing them into losses.
Though the government was treating aqua sector under Agriculture, no facilities were being extended to aquaculture farmers on par with the ryots who were taking up paddy, horticulture and other commercial crops, said the Minister who attended a meeting with aqua farmers and stakeholders in Vijayawada on Monday.
“Government is collecting all taxes, VAT on feed and is collecting commercial slab rate on power, but is not providing insurance whenever aqua farmers suffer losses. In other States, governments are encouraging aqua farmers by offering subsidies,” said Mr. Srinivas.
No research
Stating that the government was not taking measures to rescue aqua farmers in strife, the Minister said there was no research on new fish varieties and the old species like Rohu, Catla, Seabass are being cultivated, he said and stressed the need for introducing new variety fish to boost export revenue.
Stakeholders, hatchery owners, farmers and exporters who participated in the meeting from Nellore, Prakasham, Guntur, East and West, Visakhapatnam and Krishna districts said there was no supply of sufficient quantity of brood stock to the farmers. Many private hatcheries are supplying poor quality and disease-affected seed which was affecting the yield, they said.
Processing park
They appealed to the government to set up quarantine, Aquaculture Research Institute, Aqua Disease Diagnose Lab, Aquaculture University, processing park, relaxation of tax on feed, exempt government permission for fish tank repairs and fill up vacancies in Fisheries and other allied departments.
Responding to the problems, Agriculture Minister Prathipati Pulla Rao discussed the problems with APIIC Chairman Krishnaiah, MPEDA Deputy Director S. Kandan, International Food Prize Laureate M. Vijay Gupta. Mr. Rao assured to take the problems to the notice of Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.
Municipal Minister P. Narayana who attended the meeting said the government in collaboration with National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB) will construct Model Fish Markets in all 110 municipalities in the State.
Officers from Fisheries, NFDB, Central Institute of Fresh Water Aquaculture, Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) and other departments participated.
