Aqua feed factory in AP on the anvil

vijayawada: a team of aquaculturists from thailand and malaysia will visit andhra pradesh later this month to the study the possibility of setting up an exclusive aqua feed factory here using the latest technology. talking to the times of india here on monday, minister for fisheries n narasimha rao said new policy guidelines would be framed to develop aqua industry in the state in tune with the developments in countries like thailand and malaysia.narasimha rao visited these countries last week to study the state of aqua industry there and see if any new processes could be emulated here. he said as the aquaculturists in foreign countries use seed produced only in the hatcheries, growth of prawns and other seafood there was very healthy and fetching profits for the farmers."here we catch the prawns in the sea and hatch them in the ponds because of which the yields are low", he noted. he said a special feed is used in aqua farming in foreign countries costing about rs 4,000 per tonne, in healthy growth of the prawns."we plan to import about 90 tonnes of feed for local use after which a similar factory will be set up in the state," the minister said. narasimha rao said 10 lakh tonnes of seafood like fish and prawns would be produced in the state by the 2005 though this target was fixed for the 2020 under the vision programme. the tiger prawn variety was being raised in about one lakh acres in the state but the farmers had been losing heavily because of viral attacks in the last four or five years, the minister said. in the 12 other countries where tiger prawns were being grown, advanced technologies were being used to check viral attacks, he said, adding that training programmes were also being organised for aquaculturists in this regard. "we are now planning to introduce similar programmes for the aquaculturists in the state so that they can prevent the viral attacks," the fisheries minister said.