Andhra Pradesh government will soon set up an Aquaculture Authority to monitor the hatcheries from seed to marketing.
It will also assure Minimum Support Price (MSP) for farmers and asked the farmers not to sell aqua products in distress.
The State has the largest number of hatcheries in the country. But with 80 percent of brooders (mother prawns) imported from the US, production has been hit due to the lockdown.
In this regard, the State government has already written to the Union Ministry of Commerce and Fisheries to permit the cargo for aqua production and sale.
“The State government will stand by the aqua farmers and make sure that they need not resort to distress sales. As of now, exports of the aqua produce have begun in various ports across the State, soon the cargo services will be made fully functional,’’ Mopidevi Venkataramana Ramana, Minister for Animal Husbandry and Fisheries, Government of Andhra Pradesh, said in a release.