Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, May 21: People from coastal Karnataka districts like Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Uttara Kannada and also Mumbai in Maharashtra get supply of prawns from Raichur now.

Young farmers from Devusugur village of Raichur taluk, Sarvesh Rayudu, Sathish Doddi, Venkatesh Bhootapalli, Suresh Patil and Rajkumar Varapete took up the challenge of undertaking prawns culture on the banks of River Krishna and have succeeded in their effort.

It has been six months since they came together and dug 12 huge pits in 12 acres of field in which prawns were raised. They spent Rs 1.2 crore for this purpose. They began to raise the fingerlings in December last year and within six months, they have recovered half of their investment.

When they were about to market the prawns in April this year, lockdown was clamped. There was huge demand for prawns from Raichur from coastal Karnataka district where fishing was suspended. The farmers confess that they have sold prawns valued at Rs 70 lac so far.

Their prawns are liked by the people of coastline. Prawns are dispatched by them every Wednesday and Sunday. The district administration and horticulture department have issued passes to them. Every kilogram of prawns commands a price between Rs 300 and 500. They get daily price chart of prawns online from Mumbai every day.

Sarvesh Rayudu explained that they had seen farmers undertaking prawns culture at Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh. "We hired 18 workers from Andhra Pradesh to monitor the activity. We are getting online booking for prawns every day," he revealed. He said that locally they are able to sell one and half tonne of prawns very week. The remaining prawns are being dispatched elsewhere, he added.