Brackishwater aquaculture in Gujarat- current status and CIBA’s initiatives.

Abstract

The State of Gujarat has a coastline of 1600 km. The lowlying and certain other areas adjacent to the coastline offer immense potential for the development of brackishwater aquaculture. The Government of Gujarat has been mounting lot of efforts to harness the full potential for the development of brackishwater aquaculture in the coastal zone of the State. These efforts have been yeilding positive signs of improvement in the level of aqua production and in the export price of shrimps, thereby reflecting an increasing trend in the earnings of the aquafarmers. These developments are indicative of an optimistic scenario for the further expansion of shrimp farming in the State. In this background, the available resources, infrastructure, current farming practices, production and marketing constraints and initiatives of Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture, Chennai in tackling certain research issues of concern related to the activity are described in this contribution. Brackishwater Potential in the Coastal Districts of Gujarat . There are 12 coastal districts in Gujarat, viz., Valsad, Navsari, Surat, Bharuch, Anand, Amreli, Junagadh, Bhavnagar, Jamnagar, Porbandar, Kachchh, and Rajkot. Among these, Kutch district has the maximum coastal length of 406 km. In regard to the extent of adjoining land along the coastline is concerned, it is assessed that Bharuch district possesses the maximum adjacent of coastal land (33,208 ha) suitable for development of coastal aquaculture. The total land allotted so far to farmers along Gujarat coast for shrimp farming is 4,287.95 ha. As at present, maximum extent of coastal land was allotted to farmers in Navsari district (1,467 ha) for the development of shrimp aquaculture. Tidal amplitude of Gujarat coast is higher than in the other parts of West coast. Although 3.76 lakhs ha of brackishwater area is available in the State, the Department of Fisheries, Govt. of Gujarat has estimated that about 89,341 ha are suitable for the development of brackishwater aquaculture.