Shrimp farms eat up agri land

5 September 2012

biswabrata goswami
TAMLUK, 5 SEPT: The rapid expansion of shrimp cultivation in East Midnapore district has been causing trouble, as hundreds of hectares of agricultural land has been converted into shrimp ponds.
This has given rise to conflicts between fishermen and farmers living in the coastal areas, massive environmental pollution, salinisation of drinking-water wells and paddy fields, and the destruction of spawn and crustacean species.
According to reports available with the East Midnapore zilla parishad, around 25,000 shrimp ponds have already come up in coastal lands of Contai-I, Contai-II and Contai-III, Bhagwanpur-I, Nandigram-I and Nandigram-II, Mahisadal, Sutahata and Khejuri blocks ~ the district’s main shrimp-producing zone. Every pond extends from one to two bigha on agricultural land and improved traditional shrimp farming is being practised in low-lying areas and shallow brackish water bodies enclosed by earthen bunds, locally known as bheris.
“As shrimp farming was more profitable than paddy cultivation till five years ago, many farmers had illegally converted their farmland into shrimp ponds. This practice has triggered various social conflicts between farmers and fishermen in coastal areas putting the district administration in trouble,” said zilla parishad saha-sabhadhipati Mamud Hossain.
In the past decade, shrimp aquaculture has witnessed rapid growth in East Midnapore. The expansion was driven by the high profitability of shrimp farming and attracted a wide range of investors, from individual farmers converting paddy fields to multinational companies investing in large-scale semi-intensive and intensive shrimp farming.
“The economic significance of the shrimp sector was large in terms of export earnings and employment till a few years ago. But as the price of other goods rose, shrimp farming has become less attractive. Declining exports are now forcing the farmers to sell their produce in the local market at half the price of  last year. As a result, many farmers are now trying to return to traditional farming, but it is quite difficult,” said a fisheries officer.
Most shrimp farms need to hold saline water throughout the year which, in turn, affects the soil. “If we shut the shrimp enclosures, we will die without food as no crops will be produced for few years because of their salinity,” said farmer Bikash Maity of Ramnagar-II block.
Small farmers say they are caught in a trap of brackish waters. Maity used to grow paddy and vegetables and raise cattle and poultry before he took to prawn farming 25 years ago. “But, nowadays, I need to buy everything from the market that is not produced locally because of the salinity,” he said.
With the 1996 Supreme Court order and the 1997 Aquaculture Bill, a new piece of legislation was introduced but the present permit and regulation system for shrimp farming is still deficient in a number of areas which relate, in particular, to enforcement.