jostling for space in aquaculture ponds, if the country's first mud crab hatchery prototype proves successful.

The Department of Biotechnology in the Ministry of Science and Technology has funded a project to develop the technology for crab culture and commissioned the new hatchery on the Andhra University campus at Visakhapatnam, writes Hindu Business Line.

"This is the first time we are transferring the technology from the laboratory to the field," said principal researcher Prof D.E. Babu. The department is prepared to give the technology to interested entrepreneurs, he added.

The project began in 1996 when a few crab juveniles were released into a pond for culture. The hatchery was set up with seawater intake and purification systems and was designed for rearing mother crabs, early/late larval stages of crabs, and growing on the juvenile crabs until they reach marketable size. The researchers say developing feed formulations for larval, juvenile and adult stages of crabs would be the key to success of the mud crab hatchery project.

Until now crab production has been confined to fisheries in the coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu on a low scale. According to Prof Babu, the advantage of crab culture is that it is ideally suited for small and medium-scale farms and rotation of shrimp and crab crops could fetch rich returns.
 

If the hatchery proves to be a commercial success is could re-shape the country's aquaculture industry - which continues to hinge on shrimp farming - and provide new opportunities on lucrative export markets. Crabs command a sizeable market in Japan and the US with the price of crabmeat being about INR 340 per kilo.

By Helen Roberts
FIS.com