MPEDA stepping up thrust on aquaculture tech
27 September 2007INDIA - The Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) is intensifying efforts to foster aquaculture technologies on export-oriented species with the twin objectives of enabling more employment opportunities in the rural sector and generating valuable foreign exchange for the country.
Official sources told Business Line here that though the extant level of export-oriented aquaculture remains fixated on just two varieties of shell fishes, such as marine shrimp and freshwater prawn (scampi), their contribution in the total production of 25 lakh tonnes is only two lakh tonnes, which is around 9.5 per cent. Rest of the production comprises freshwater fishes, which are consumed locally in whole form without much value addition.
The sources said the 9.5 per cent aquaculture production of shrimp and scampi generate enormous employment opportunities in the rural sector in farm management, hatchery production of seeds, feed mills, pre-processing, export processing and marketing sectors, besides fetching around $1 billion by way of foreign exchange.
Source: Sify
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