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Wednesday, June 14, 2017
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Farmed prawn can be a foreign exchange earner
LOCALLY farmed prawn can be a vital foreign exchange earner for the country.
But the local industry has been experiencing a setback due to the prevalence of certain viral diseases affecting the vannamei variety.
It is a prawn variety of the eastern Pacific Ocean that is commonly caught or farmed for food.
Despite the problems confronting the sector, production of vannamei in the Philippines is said to be increasing.
With the welcome development, several industry players in the country are now applying particular methods to reduce or prevent the occurrence of diseases, and to improve yields through sound management practices.
Considering that prawn is an important aquaculture commodity, the prawn farm of Ricky Sun in Manapla, Negros Occidental, has already adopted sound management practices and developed their own technologies to boost the local industry.
For the feed conversion ratio, a modified feeding schedule has been designed to minimize feed wastage and production cost.
It is expected that the different modifications and technologies developed by the farm management will help boost the industry in the country.
Even the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has said that commercial culture of the said species in several areas showed a rapidly increasing trend, adding that Asia has seen a phenomenal increase in the production of vannamei.
However, due to fears over importation of exotic diseases, many Asian countries have been reluctant to promote the farming of vannamei – its culture remains officially confined to experimental testing only in Cambodia, India, Malaysia, Myanmar, and the Philippines, FAO says.
At the Manapla prawn farm, the ponds can be completely drained, dried, and prepared before each stocking.
This culture system is common in Asia and in some other farms that are trying to increase productivity.
Partial harvesting is common in Asian after the first 3 months, and at the Manapla farm, the prawns are simply harvested with large scoop nets when required for processing.
The availability of safe brood stock provides a means of avoiding the diseases, although biosecurity procedures are also important, including: thorough drying/scraping of pond bottoms between cycles; reducing water exchange and fine screening of any inlet water; use of bird netting; and, placing barriers around the ponds.
Once viruses do enter the ponds, FAO said that there are no chemicals or drugs available to treat the infections, but good management of pond, water, feed and the health status of stocks can reduce their virulence.
Because of this, farmers are becoming aware of the growing need to farm shrimp or prawn in a responsible, traceable and low impact manner, which can enhance biosecurity, and help protect the environment – producing shrimp in a cost efficient manner.
And in order to continue the growth of local industry smoothly, domestic consumption should be encouraged to supplement the erratic export markets.
The potential of the local industry is bright – it could generate direct and indirect jobs in a certain region, and generate an opportunity for rural development which can result to a significant economic impact. (jaypeeyap@ymail.com/PN)
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