MARGAO
If the Parsekar regime had mooted a marine park with private participation on the sprawling grounds of the defunct Benaulim prawn hatchery, the incumbent dispensation is toying with the idea of setting up an amusement park on the hatchery land admeasuring 50,000-odd square metres.
Against the backdrop of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar evincing keen interest in aquaculture farming at the recently held India International Seafood Show, one question doing the round in the Fisheries and Agriculture department is whether the Benaulim prawn hatchery land, which once hosted Goa’s pilot prawn hatchery, would come in handy for the revival of the aquaculture farming in the State on the lines of Andhra Pradesh and other states located on the country’s east coast.
In fact, this question has assumed significance with the Chief Minister even going to the extent of requesting Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA), the nodal agency of the Union Ministry of Commerce & Industry, to pass on the expertise and knowledge on aquaculture success along the east coast to Goan farmers.
Fisheries officials, who were closely associated with Brackish Water Fish Farmers Development Agency, which had set up Goa’s pilot prawn hatchery at Benaulim, says that the vacant land in question can be utilised to implement Chief Minister’s aquaculture farm plan for Goa. “The land owned by the Benaulim hatchery is readily available with the government. The land may be small in size if the government thinks of going in a big way on the aquaculture front, but the government can make a start on the available land,” remarked a Fisheries official.
He pointed out that the Benaulim prawn hatchery land can be used for breeding of the mother prawn imported from Hawaii or from the Pacific coast as a multiplication centre before supplying the seeds to the farmers. “With aquaculture farming still not caught up along the west coast, Goa can be a centre for the supply of the seed after multiplication at the Benaulim hatchery. The hatchery can be renovated to meet the requirements of aquaculture farm as the machinery that was installed at the farm was keeping in mind the technology in the early 90’s,” the official added.
When The Goan called up Agriculture Minister Vijai Sardesai to shed light whether the government will use the Benaulim prawn hatchery land for the revival of aquaculture farming in Goa, he said, “The Benaulim land may be small in size if the government is thinking big, especially when other states have huge farms running into lakhs of square metres.”
Sardesai, however, said he has no idea what’s there in the mind of the Chief Minister, whether he has any plans to put the Benaulim prawn hatchery land to use in the future. When his attention was drawn to the reports that the present government is toying with the idea of setting up an amusement park on the Benaulim hatchery land, the Agriculture Minister said that nothing has been decided yet on how to put the land to use.
Goa’s lone prawn hatchery at Benaulim in the early 90’s was the major destination for aquaculture farms in Goa and across the borders, before the unit saw a gradual decline, finally resulting in the closure of the hatchery around a decade ago.
