Shrimp farming can be an answer to growing soil salinity in North India

The reports said that in India, out of a total 6.74 million hectares of salinity-affected subsoils (SAS), 1.2 million hectares (around 18%) are in north-western India alone

As large tracts of soil in India’s northern belt turn saline, lowering their effectiveness for crop cultivation, shrimp culture could emerge as an alternative income source for farmers, as net returns from a single shrimp crop per year in a state such as Haryana are estimated at Rs 6.3 lakh per hectare, while returns from traditional cropping systems of wheat–paddy and wheat–cotton combinations yield significantly lower net returns of Rs 1.74 lakh and Rs 1.32 lakh per hectare per annum, recent research papers show.

 

The returns from traditional crop cultivation have been estimated using the A2 cost estimates from the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP).

 

“This reflects a 3.6 to 4.7 times higher return from shrimp aquaculture, even when comparing two crop cycles of traditional agriculture with a single shrimp cycle, which is the norm in Haryana. This ratio could easily be 4 to 5 for saline lands, as crop productivity on these saline soils is much lower than for Haryana as a whole, which is the basis of CACP’s profitability estimates,” the report titled Shrimp Farming in Haryana: Learnings from Andhra Pradesh, authored by Raya Das, Sanchit Gupta and Ashok Gulati of ICRIER, said.

 

The report was released on Monday along with another titled Blue Revolution: Aquaculture to Augment Farmers’ Income.

 

A roundtable with major stakeholders in the shrimp and aquaculture industry, academicians and policymakers was also held on the occasion.

 

The reports also flagged risks to shrimp farming, saying that the capital-intensive nature of shrimp aquaculture makes it more vulnerable to production risks, where studies show that even a single crop failure within a five-year cycle significantly heightens a farmer’s reliance on informal credit channels, thereby increasing the risk of indebtedness and distress.

 

Drawing lessons from Andhra Pradesh, India’s leading shrimp-producing state, the report highlighted successful risk-mitigation strategies that have stabilised incomes for farmers, based on an analysis of case studies.

 

These include partial harvesting to manage price volatility, adherence to best management practices (BMP) to reduce disease risks, use of nursery-based biofloc systems to improve survival rates, diversification through polyculture, and adoption of higher stocking densities to improve productivity.

 

On growing salinity in Indian soils, the reports said that in India, out of a total 6.74 million hectares of salinity-affected subsoils (SAS), 1.2 million hectares (around 18 per cent) are in north-western India alone.

 

According to a Central Soil Salinity Research Institute (CSSRI), Karnal, study, SAS in India is expected to increase from 6.74 million hectares to 16.25 million hectares by 2030.

 

“These salinity-affected lands, often unsuitable for traditional crop agriculture, hold immense potential to be transformed from wastelands to wealthy lands,” the report said.

 

The report said that while in Haryana, targeting 30-count shrimp offers high profitability, it simultaneously demands stringent compliance with BMPs, mechanisms for input quality assurance, such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing of seed, and more robust backward and forward market linkages.

 

The long-term viability of inland shrimp aquaculture in the state will depend on the development of region-specific value chains, access to formal credit and insurance, and institutional capacity building to support smallholder farmers in transitioning to this high-value but risk-prone livelihood option, the report said.

 

The report also outlined a comprehensive policy framework to strengthen the institutional ecosystem for sustainable inland shrimp aquaculture in Haryana and similar inland states.

 

These include reducing variable costs, which is critical to improving the viability of shrimp aquaculture in inland saline areas. This includes lowering input costs such as feed and electricity. Feed alone constitutes nearly 50 per cent of variable costs.

 

Establishing local feed mills can significantly cut transportation and procurement expenses.

 

Electricity is another major cost burden — shrimp farmers in Haryana pay between Rs 4.65 and Rs 5.00 per unit, compared to just Rs 1.25 per unit in aqua-zoned areas of Andhra Pradesh.

 

“To improve energy efficiency and reduce operational costs, the adoption of solar-powered aerators and aqua-voltaic systems should be actively promoted under PMSSY-supported capital investments,” the report said.

 

It also called for the development of decentralised processing infrastructure and market access to support value addition and reduce post-harvest losses.

 

“Our stakeholder consultation indicates that a shrimp processing plant with a capacity of 50 to 60 tonnes per day requires approximately 8,800 tonnes of annual raw material to operate viably,” the report said.

 

In 2023–24, Haryana produced around 8,162 tonnes of shrimp, with Sirsa district alone contributing an estimated 4,000 to 4,500 tonnes from over 678 hectares under cultivation.

 

On the finance front, the reports also analysed central and state budgets across various segments of the aquaculture value chain over the last decade. It examined the share of expenditure allocated to fisheries in relation to total agricultural expenditure, referred to as the Fisheries Priority Ratio (FPR).

 

This analysis covered four states — Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Odisha and Haryana — representing three leading aquaculture producers and an emerging landlocked aquaculture state, to assess the extent and effectiveness of their expenditure priorities in the fisheries sector.

 

As per the reports, West Bengal shows a downward trend line, that is, a declining priority of expenditure on fisheries compared to total agricultural expenditure from 2011–12 to 2024–25, which explains the low growth rate of gross state value added (GSVA) from the fisheries sector at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of just 3.1 per cent at 2011–12 prices.

 

Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Haryana, meanwhile, show high growth rates of GSVA from fisheries at 14.6 per cent, 9.1 per cent and 7.7 per cent, respectively, accompanied by an increasing trend line of FPRs.

 

The reports show a positive correlation between higher priority for expenditure on fisheries over time and GSVA from fisheries over the same period.