Economics of prawn culture in Vypeen, Kerala, with emphasis on some little-known facts

Abstract

With the increasing demand for prawns in export market, extensive culture practices have given way to semi-intensive or intensive systems in many parts of the country. The perennial and most of the seasonal ponds of Vypeen Island near Kochi are still of extensive nature with little or no management. Although, some studies on economics of prawn farming in seasonal ponds are available (George, 1974, 1980; Purushan, 1987; Sathiadhas et al., 1989), such information on the perennial fields is almost lacking. Diseases, parasites, predators and competitors cause concern in culture systems (Shang, 1981). Yet, it seems to be ignored in economic analysis except on a very few occasions, as for instance by Mammen et al. (1980) and Beynon et al. (1981). The present paper, therefore, reports lhe economics of the perennial prawn culture fields in Vypeen pointing out what harm predation and disease cause in production. Some observations on the seasonal system are also made for comparison.