Jharkhand to promote prawn culture

Wednesday, 08 November 2006, 20:30 IST
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Ranchi: The Jharkhand government will promote prawn production by its animal husbandry department to bring down prices. "We are making efforts to produce prawn. Surplus prawns will be exported," an official said. A kilo of prawn in Jharkhand now costs 400-500. Against the total consumption of 2,500 kg prawn, the state produces hardly 200-300 kg. It is bought from neighbouring states like Orissa and West Bengal. The animal husbandry department has identified 150 ponds where prawn culture will be promoted in the current financial year. The department has targeted to produce 80 kg of prawn in each pond. This way the department is expecting a production of 12,000 kg. The official said: "Farmers are being provided free prawn and seed. Our experiment has been successful in some of the ponds and farmers are getting good results." The farmers seem happy. "I took up prawn culture last year and it yielded good results. The margin of input and output is huge and it boosts our economy," said Mangal Toppo, a farmer of the Namkom area of Ranchi. "We hope the production of prawn will be more than 20,000 kg in the next two years, which is much more than the requirement. The extra will be exported," said an official of the fishery department.
Source: IANS