February 26, 2007

Prawn farmers seek ban on imported white shrimp species

The Prawn Farmers Federation of India, is urging the country's Agriculture Ministry to ban the P Vannamei shrimp in India.

The federation, formed by more than 100,000 small-scale prawn farmers want the shrimp banned as it would destroy the thriving black-tiger prawn culture. India is the leading producer of black-tiger prawns in the world.

Allowing private hatchery operators to import P Vannamei brood stock is against the collective will and interest of the 100,000 farmers and more than a million employees in India's shrimp industry, Mohan Raju, the group's Interim-President said.

The species grown in high density culture systems, is not suitable and not economically viable to the small scale farmers, who constitute more than 92 percent of the farming community, he said.

Moreover, P Vannamei was host to various known and unknown viruses, which have a high propensity to mutate, he said. P Vannamei also hosts an as yet undetected pathogen which causes  Monodon Slow Growth Syndrome(MSGS), the biggest threat to tiger shrimps.

At the moment, adequate bio- security measures as well as proper controls for introduction and monitoring is not in place and thus the new shrimps should be banned, he said.