Poly Culture farming is a traditional farming
system which was started by Japanese and many Asian countries in
carrying out inland fish culture. Prawns too started growing
with fish and was the beginning of prawn culture at commercial
level. Monoculture which means culturing only males have proved
good results with an attractive growth rate.
Today the answer for the declining prawn
industry in Sri Lanka is Poly culture or crop rotation for a
sustainable development and achieve the target of 5000 Mt for
the year 2005.
The production cost per kilo of prawns in the
year 1989 was Rs. 200 and below with the feed price at Rs. 50
fetching an export price of US $ 12 to 16 to EU, Japan and USA.
Today the export price is as low as 10 to 12 US$ and the cost of
production is almost Rs. 550 per kilo of prawns. If the survival
rate is low it is a case of loss for the fanner in addition to
the risk of ‘white spot disease’ with 100% crop failures. Prawn
feed price which is also in the hands of the private traders
subjected to high commissions, which is even not recorded with
the tax department, is yet another issue for the prawn farmer
along with the rocketing fuel price for power generation.
Many approved farmers have faced heavy losses
and being unable to generate funds to pay up bank loans for
above reasons. The treasury is handling this issue very
athletically as far as the high exposure by approved farmers
with bank loans on accrued interest which is beyond the control
of the farmer.
The non payment to banks are unintentional in
many cases. But many banks are threatening legal action and
demanding payment from farmers, which is not reasonable
The crop failure is mainly due to the negligence
of many government institutions which ignored the damages by
unauthorised farmers to the environment very specially to the
mangrove belt. Furthermore direct discharge of water and
blocking flood planes and low lying areas by unauthorised
farmers have resulted in a heavy drop on the tidal movement of
the water body.
This means causing a longer residence time in
the water body with contaminated effluents which directly
affects biodiversity. The natural resources, and natural way of
cleaning the water body is completely declined causing an
unbalanced ecosystem. This is the result of declining production
and the socio economic conflict of the Puttalam district where
the government has spent billions of rupees to overcome the
devastated condition of our natural resources.
ONE SHOULD UNDERSTAND THAT THE environment IS
HELD IN TRUST BY THE PRESENT GENERATION FOR POSTERITY.
Our future generation would curse us if action
is not taken to rehabilitate the environment from the present
devastated condition.
The government of Sri Lanka must declare a
policy that prawn farming could be carried out only with Poly
culture or crop rotation and explore the possibility of entering
the global market on the products used for poly culture or crop
rotation. Although the attractive prices are seen in
supermarkets in the globe, it doesn’t mean that you could enter
it at any time and fetch the consumers price. We have to study
the way out to enter the wholesale or importers chain as it is
yet another mafia that governs the stability of the global
market.
A prawn farm funded by Deshamanya Dr. Lalith
Kotalawala switched on to Ploy culture after a trial and error
method when the prawns were affected with the white spot. This
has proved to be very successful and more environmentally
favoured which has drawn the eye of many researchers, NARA,
NAQDA and the Asian Development Bank team promoting inland
fisheries. The Prawn farmers should decide on environmentally
favoured culture systems to maintain sustainability of the prawn
industry.
