With the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) planning big to promote mud crab, also known as mangrove crab ( Sylla serrata), cultivation in the sea coast mandals, the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has completed a feasibility study to introduce the crab rearing in the brackish water ponds in Krishna district.
The exercise was undertaken as part of the project proposed to improve the livelihood options for those engaged in aquaculture in the district for which the NABARD will extend financial assistance. The project aims to make crab cultivation in aqua ponds viable as the species is available only in mangrove forest and survives in brackishwater, NABARD Assistant General Manager N. Madhumurthy told The Hindu. “Promotion of mangrove crab cultivation and Asian Seabass variety are a few areas of our project worth Rs. 2 crore,” he said.
NABARD has trained members of the Sneha, an NGO working on aquaculture, in the cultivation methods and other marketing strategies at the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Aquaculture (RGCA), Pondicherry in July.
“The RGCA experts have trained us in technical aspects such as feeding, site selection, and growth monitoring and marketing strategies and other cultivation aspects of crab culture in brackishwater ponds,” said Sneha Director M. Nageswara Rao.
Meanwhile, the Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture, Chennai, has already scripted success in cultivation of mud crab by involving Yanadi tribes in brackish water ponds located in the mangrove forest in Nagayalanka. According to CIBA experts, Sylla seretta is being exported to South East Asian countries from Chennai and it fetches Rs. 1,200 a kg in domestic market in Indian cities too.
Source : The Hindu
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