LAHORE: The caretaker chief minister Punjab Mohsin Naqvi has accorded in-principle approval to a pilot program to introduce shrimp aquaculture and has called for a comprehensive plan for the promotion of shrimp farming in the province.

In the first phase, shrimp aquaculture will be introduced on 100,000 acres of uncultivable land in a selected district while ten shrimp farms of 10,000 acres each will be established on barren lands in the province.

Local investors will be provided free land for shrimp farming for a specified period and after the success of the pilot phase, the shrimp farming project will be expanded. Meanwhile, a proposal was also being assessed to provide loans in easy instalments to small farmers for shrimp farming up to one kanal area.

It has been reported that self-reliance can be achieved in shrimp farming by building shrimp hatcheries, feed mills, and processing plants.

Even a small country like Ecuador is earning more than 4.5 billion dollars annually by exporting shrimp as it is an environment-friendly business. It is expected that this beneficial project would help in earning billions of dollars in foreign exchange.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023