Emerging culture of Indian white shrimp

To tide over the problems encountered in the marketing of tiger shrimp, some farmers in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat have  initiated    the culture of Indian white shrimp F. indicus as it has a good demand in   the domestic market. In order to assess emerging culture practices of this species, which was once cultivated extensively in India, information was collected from hatchery operators who supplied white shrimp seed and six farmers, (Gujarat-1; Tamil Nadu-5). It was observed that the farm size was generally 1- 3 ha and the production was 0.93-2.8 t/ha and FCR  obtained was  1: 1.1-1.8.  It was  also observed that  in  the  case  of white shrimp, two to three crops (75-100 days) were possible while only  one or two crops of 4- 5 month duration  are possible with  tiger shrimp. A farmer in Gujarat who reported a profi t margin of about 50 % carried out a partial harvesting after 70 days of culture, so as to cater to   the domestic market demand  which was  about 300 kg/day in the week days and 500 kg on Sundays. The shrimps were sold @ Rs.150-170/kg in Tamil Nadu and Rs.200/kg in Mumbai. A progressive farmer in Pattukottai, Tamil Nadu cultured and supplied the white shrimp to domestic markets in Bangalore, Goa and in Tamil Nadu during closed fi shing seasons to realize a higher profi t.  Though no disease problems were reported in Gujarat, WSSV, LSS, Vibrio spp and Slow Growth Syndrome were reported from one farm at Tamil Nadu.  From the observations made in this study, it could be inferred that, further spread of F.indicus culture would depend on the ability of farmers to exploit the domestic market.