Aquaculture 531 (2021) 735922

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Aquaculture
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/aquaculture

Prospective impact of Corona virus disease (COVID-19) related lockdown on T

shrimp aquaculture sector in India – a sectoral assessment
M. Kumaran , R. Geetha, Jose Antony, K.P. Kumaraguru Vasagam, P.R. Anand, T. Ravisankar,
⁎

J. Raymond Jani Angel, Debasis De, M. Muralidhar, P.K. Patil, K.K. Vijayan
ICAR-Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture, 75, Santhome High Road, Chennai 600 028, India

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: The lockdown on account of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) adversely impacted the food production
COVID-19 sector including aquaculture, globally. Unfortunately, it coincided with the major shrimp farming season in India
Shrimp aquaculture which contributes 60% of the national annual shrimp production hence the impact was substantial. An on-line
Impact assessment survey was carried out among the stakeholders of the shrimp farming sector to evaluate the prospective impact
Socio-economics
of COVID-19 related lockdown across the shrimp supply chain. The study estimated an economic loss of 1.50
Supply chain disruption
Mitigation measures
billion USD to the shrimp aquaculture sector during the current year. It is expected that shrimp production and
its export performance may be declining by 40% in the current season. The Garret ranking and Rank Based
Quotient analyses projected severe constraints in shrimp seed production and supply, disruptions in the supply
chain, logistics, farming, processing, marketing and loss of employment and income for the workers due to the
pandemic. To mitigate the impact, the Government of India declared fisheries and aquaculture as an essential
activity, facilitated the movement of inputs and services. Further, a major Fisheries Development Scheme
(PMMSY) with a financial outlay of 267 million USD has been announced to usher in a blue revolution by
strengthening the value chain, doubling the fisher/farmer income, employment generation, economic and social
security for fishers/fish farmers adhering to the sustainability principles. Short and medium-term technical and
policy measures are suggested to tide over the impact of COVID-19 related lockdown and related restrictions.

1. Introduction 19-induced restrictions exert a symmetric, but asynchronous shock on

the global and national food systems from primary supply to processing,
The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) first reported exports to trade as well as national and international logistics systems
from Wuhan, China (Wang et al., 2020) in December 2019 has been (Schmidhuber et al., 2020; Torero, 2020). A paradox of unemployment
declared as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern due to close down of activities in manufacturing and service sectors in
(PHEIC) and the virus has spread to almost all the countries (Johns one side as well as labour shortage in primary food production systems
Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center (JHU), 2020). It has infected due to social and movement restrictions might cause severe economic
approximately 22.86 million people worldwide and about 0.78 million consequences that can result in global economic recession as bad as the
people lost their lives as on 20th August 2020 (https://www. great depression (International Monetary Fund (IMF), 2020). Moreover,
worldometers.info/coronavirus/). In India, around 2.77 million export restrictions across the countries might limit global farm-food
people were diagnosed positive for COVID-19 and 53,000 people lost trade and market access (Laborde, 2020; IFPRI, 2020) and the reduced
their lives by the end of August 2020 (https://www.mohfw.gov.in/). freight capacity on commercial flights for agricultural goods led to
India had imposed a countrywide lockdown from 25 March to 20 Au­ global supply chain disruptions (FAO, 2020a; Ivanov, 2020). Further,
gust 2020 in different phases restricting the movement of people, the declaration of lockdown without preparedness impacted all the
closing down transport networks and all the economic activities except operations across the food system value chain (FAO, 2020b; Stephens
a few essential and medical services. Due to the highly contagious et al., 2020).
nature of the virus which till date does not have a specific treatment or Shrimp aquaculture is a vibrant agri-business sector in India with a
vaccine, many countries have enforced complete lockdown/shutdown production of 0.7 Million Tonnes (MT), most of which (90%) is ex­
in their respective territories to contain the spread of the virus. COVID- ported to the United States of America (USA), South East Asia,

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: [email protected] (M. Kumaran), [email protected] (T. Ravisankar), [email protected] (M. Muralidhar).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aquaculture.2020.735922
Received 10 May 2020; Received in revised form 21 August 2020; Accepted 5 September 2020
Available online 11 September 2020
0044-8486/ © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
M. Kumaran, et al. Aquaculture 531 (2021) 735922

European Union (EU), China and Japan earning a substantial amount of org.in/aqf.php) located at Chennai, Tamil Nadu to ascertain them that
foreign exchange to the tune of 5 billion USD (MPEDA, 2019). Nearly they are free of OIE listed pathogens before entering the hatcheries.
70,000 t of shrimps were consumed domestically. India is also the third The short and long-term effects of COVID-19 risks marginalise
largest producer of farmed shrimp globally with extensive farming re­ coastal communities who are already vulnerable to many social and
gions distributed in the east and west coasts of the country. About 1.2 environmental changes (Bennett et al., 2020). FAO (2020b) in its initial
million people are employed directly or indirectly in the shrimp supply assessment on COVID-19 indicated that shrimp farming gets disrupted
chain which encompasses seed production and supply, farming, pro­ as supply chains are broken, labour shortage emerges and market access
duction and supply of feeds and other inputs, harvest, post-harvest gets affected. Therefore, it is important to investigate the immediate
handling and marketing (Geetha et al., 2019). Shrimp farming is and long-term consequences of this pandemic for the global network of
practiced in about 0.15 million ha spreading across nine coastal states agricultural and food systems (Bennett et al., 2020; Stephens et al.,
with an average productivity of 6 t/ ha mostly by small and medium 2020). Under these circumstances, the present study was undertaken to
scale farms (MPEDA, 2019). However, major critical inputs such as account the impact of COVID-19 related lockdown restrictions and their
seed, feed, pond supplements and shrimp health care products are cascading effect on the shrimp value chain, from the perspective of
produced mostly in two southern states: Andhra Pradesh and Tamil stakeholders. This study intends to bring out suggestions for interven­
Nadu and transported to all the other states. The processing factories tions that could contribute to developing mitigation measures and
are spread across the maritime states. Therefore, interstate and in­ policy responses for the resilience of the shrimp farming sector in India.
trastate movement of inputs and farmed shrimp are of utmost im­
portance for the sector. Since 2010, Pacific white shrimp (Penaeus 2. Materials and methods
vannamei) has been the main species farmed and hatcheries rely on
Specific Pathogen Free (SPF) brood stocks imported from the USA, Since the country was in complete lockdown, an online survey was
Madagascar and Mexico for seed production. The SPF shrimp brood carried out as it is one of the efficient data collection methods to obtain
stock imported from overseas suppliers are quarantined in a govern­ data in a short time frame as done in previous studies (Geldsetzer, 2020;
ment-owned Aquaculture Quarantine Facility (AQF) (http://www.rgca. Anne et al., 2018; Katharina et al., 2016). A digital questionnaire was

Fig. 1. State wise representation of stakeholder participation in the survey (n = 504).

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M. Kumaran, et al. Aquaculture 531 (2021) 735922

prepared in the English language containing both closed-ended and where in

open-ended type questions. The questionnaire comprised two parts: The Fi = Number of respondents reporting a particular problem under
first portion comprised of questions on contact details of respondents ith rank.
and their stakeholder type. Whereas the second part contained three N = Number of respondents.
different sets of questions respectively pertaining to (i) farmers and i = Number of ranks.
extension personnel (input dealers, technicians and consultants); (ii) n = Number of constraints identified.
seed and feed producers; (iii) shrimp processors and exporters. The
logic was set in such a manner that upon selection of the particular 3. Results and discussion
stakeholder type, the questions pertaining to that particular segment
alone gets displayed for eliciting their response. Some questions were The results are presented and discussed in four sections: (i) shrimp
common in all the three sets to obtain the perceptions of the stake­ seed production and supply, (ii) shrimp farming, (iii) processing and
holders regarding the impact of the pandemic on the sector as a whole. marketing and (iv) overall impact and economic loss to the sector as a
The questionnaire was prepared using the on-line survey platform whole.
survey monkey (www.surveymonkey.com). The survey was open to all
the stakeholders in the shrimp aquaculture sector who had access to 3.1. Seed production and supply
digital platforms and the opportunity to participate and record their
perceptions. It was posted across the digital platforms (CIBA Shrim­ The impact of COVID-19 lock down on shrimp hatcheries is given in
papp, ICAR-CIBA website, WhatsApp groups, Facebook groups and the form of Garret ranking mean score in Fig. 2. Manpower shortage
linkedin networks of shrimp aquaculture stakeholders in India) on 12th (65.33) and non-availability of skilled technicians (48.11) at shrimp
April 2020. The questionnaire is appended as a supplementary material. hatcheries due to restrictions in the movement were ranked as severe
Within a fortnight, 504 stakeholders representing farmers (46.08%), constraints followed by insufficient SPF brood stock availability (46.78)
input dealers, technicians and consultants (40.38%), seed and feed and lack of transport facilities to distribute the seed across the farming
producers (9.48%) and processors (4.06%) across the country (Fig. 1) regions which together adversely affected the hatcheries. Similar views
responded to the survey and recorded their opinion. Few (3–4 numbers) were reported in other media (https://www.undercurrentnews.com/
key informants in each segment of shrimp aquaculture sector acquaint 2020/04/02/indian-hatcheries-hit-by-virus-lockdown/). It was re­
with the authors were contacted telephonically to validate the data ported that quarantine measures were severely affecting the labour
collected through the online survey. Their inputs were incorporated in availability for critical farming operations and the timing of labour
the discussions under relevant portions. The data were statistically needs is often inflexible for seasonally produced foods (Stephens et al.,
analyzed by using Garrett ranking and Rank Based Quotient analyses. 2020).
Microsoft Office spreadsheet was used to estimate the prospective There were two scenarios extracted based on the data collected and
economic impact on shrimp aquaculture. The analyzed data are ap­ validated with key informants. In the first scenario, wherein, the seed
propriately presented as tables and graphs. produced by the shrimp hatcheries prior to the lockdown which should
have been ideally sold to farmers during the first week post- lockdown
2.1. Garrett ranking analysis could not be sold due to total disruption in transportation, uncertainty
and non-availability of workforce. Since holding ready to sale shrimp
Garrett's ranking technique was employed to find out the critical post larvae (PL) for longer periods was uneconomical for the hatchery
constraints faced by the shrimp hatcheries and processors. It was cal­ and with anticipated no improvement in demand, transportation and
culated as percentage score and the scale value was obtained by ap­ future prospects, most of the shrimp hatcheries discarded the available
plying Scale Conversion Table given by Garret and Woodworth (1969). seed stock. Most importantly, a section of farmers being aware of the
The percentage score is calculated using the following formula: pandemic situation in other countries during the beginning of the year
itself and anticipating a fall in prices due to weakening export demand
100 (Rij–0.5)
Percentage score = in these countries, were not keen on stocking shrimp even prior to
Nj lockdown. Further, the farmers in the northern states (Odisha, Gujarat
where, and West Bengal) and 30% of farmers in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil
Rij = Rank given for ith item by jth individual. Nadu states where stocking of shrimp seed was scheduled for the end of
Nj = Number of items ranked by jth individual. March to mid-April did not do so. This was owing to the uncertainties in
For each constraint, the scores of individual respondents were the availability of other inputs, manpower and expected slump in
added and divided by the total number of respondents. These mean
scores for all the constraints were ranked in order to identify the critical
constraints.

2.2. Rank based quotient analysis

The constraints experienced by shrimp farmers and the overall cri­

tical impact of COVID-19 lockdown on the sector as a whole were
analyzed using the Rank Based Quotient (RBQ) analysis to explain the
order of severity. The important constraints reported were ranked as
per their severity and the RBQ for each constraint was calculated using
the formula proposed by Sabarathnam and Vennila (1996) which is
widely adopted in agriculture and allied sectors (Katole et al., 2015;
Bandara et al., 2016; Rimiki et al., 2017).
Fig. 2. Impact of COVID-19 Lock down on shrimp seed availability and input
(Fi) (n + 1 i)
RBQ = × 100 producers (n = 50).
Nn

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M. Kumaran, et al. Aquaculture 531 (2021) 735922

shrimp prices due to forecast of poor demand in the international But they even couldn't do that due to inadequate access to insulated
markets by trading houses. trucks, skilled workforce, ice and seafood processors at the right time,
In the second scenario, farmers who had a standing stock during the which all were reported to be the major constraints faced by farmers.
lockdown resorted to ‘panic harvesting’ of small-sized shrimps and sold Bennett et al. (2020) reported such a similar scenario that farmers ex­
them for lower prices to avoid the massive financial losses. This inter­ perienced as ‘twin disaster’, which was characterized by reduced de­
ruption in the staggered harvesting and restocking might lead to a spike mand and attendant collapse of prices during the pandemic.
in seed demand immediately after the relaxation of the lockdown. Screening of water and soil samples at weekly intervals is a vital
However, due to disruption in international air cargo movement, the prerequisite to manage the optimum water quality parameters and this
import of SPF brood stock was temporarily suspended, and the hatch­ has a direct bearing on the health of the farmed shrimp. Access to the
eries did not have adequate brood stock to meet the increasing demand diagnostic laboratories for such regular screening was a severe con­
for seed. During the initial days of this crisis in India, most of the air­ straint due to movement restriction. In case of feed production and
lines had stopped their operations and even the commercial cargo supply, barring the minor glitches during the first week of the lockdown
flights had vastly decreased their freight capacity for agricultural goods, the feed mills resumed their production. However, the issues related to
which had caused disruptions in the global supply chain. Ivanov (2020) labour and logistics hindered the timely supply of feed. Feed production
reported that the agri-food sector is highly connected internationally. was driven by the demand from farming operations. Therefore, a sig­
Hence the reduction in international cargos can severely disrupt the nificant reduction in the farming area led to the scaling down of feed
shrimp value chain across the world. Therefore, the reduced local de­ production.
mand and lack of SPF brood stocks for sustaining seed production se­ Though the Government relaxed the restriction on the movement of
verely impacted the shrimp hatcheries. Further, the exodus of the mi­ aquaculture inputs and services for farming activities by classifying it
grant labour employed as technical hands in the large-scale hatcheries, under “essential activity”, the access to machinery and their parts re­
coupled with the inability to source new labour due to movement re­ quired for farming operations were severely affected. Shrimp farms in
strictions, severely affected the performance of the hatcheries resulted Gujarat, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh states were mostly manned
drop in seed production (Fig. 2). by migrant labourers from eastern parts of India hence the reverse
migration of these labourers to their home states created a labour va­
cuum affecting the farming operations. Schmidhuber et al. (2020) re­
3.2. Shrimp farming ported that labour availability for agricultural supply chains has be­
come a near ubiquitous problem, such deficits are caused by domestic
Shrimp farming has two major seasons in India viz., summer crop labour supply disruptions, as well as by shortages of seasonal and mi­
(March–April to June–July) and the winter crop (July–August to grant workers. Taking a cue from the evolving market conditions, when
November–December). The summer crop happens to be the major farmers from these states eventually planned for stocking, availability
contributor (60%) to the Indian shrimp production and unfortunately of migrant labourers were a major constraint due to the nationwide
the lockdown coincided with the main cropping season. The farming lockdown.
scenario during lockdown revealed a mixed picture. About 27% of
farmers who had prepared their ponds for stocking did not do so be­ 3.3. Processing and marketing
cause of the difficulty in obtaining quality seed, uncertainty over con­
tinuous supply of other inputs and the unpredictable market conditions. The challenges faced by the shrimp processors are given in the
About 25% of the farms were in Phase-I with less than 30 days of Fig. 3. Shortage of manpower was reported as the major constraint by
culture (DoC), 34% were in phase-II with 30 to 80 DoC, and about 14% 75% of the processors. The majority of the skilled workers employed in
were in the category above 80 DoC (Phase-III). The DoC reflected the processing plants are migrant workers who went back to their native
financial impact on the farmer, wherein farmers in phase I and II may places during the initial days of the lockdown and did not return to
not, realize their investment, while those in phase III, could make break work. Social distancing and movement restrictions by the community
even or get small profits albeit with production risks and increased are severely affecting labour availability for key time critical operations
expenditure as highlighted by the FAO (2020a). (Stephens et al., 2020) and shortages of seasonal and migrant workers
The constraints experienced by the shrimp farmers during the (FAO, 2020b; Schmidhuber et al., 2020). Harvesting and post-harvest
lockdown are detailed in Table 1. Access to processors for marketing handling of shrimps was usually done by skilled fishers, and their ab­
and transportation of harvested shrimp were flagged as severe con­ sence led to poor handling of shrimps at farms and a drop in the quality
straints with RBQ scores of 86.31 and 82.86, respectively. Similarly, of shrimps harvested. Similar situations have been reported from the
access to diagnostic labs (80.71) and post-harvest handling materials agriculture and animal husbandry sector, where agricultural produc­
(78.45) were the other major constraints. Anticipating a further drop in tion, meat and dairy products have been adversely affected by the
prices and worsening market conditions, around 50% of the farmers pandemic induced labour shortages (FAO, 2020b). To provide policy
who had a standing crop with small and medium-sized shrimps decided
for harvest and make a “distress sale” (forced to sell for lower price).

Table 1
Impact of COVID-19 Lock down on shrimp farming/farmers (n = 433).
Sl. No Impact on farming/farmers on account of access to RBQ score Rank

1. Seed 74.40 7
2. Feed and shrimp healthcare products 69.64 9
3. Water quality monitoring kits and supplements 73.10 8
4. Diagnostic labs 80.71 3
5. Farming equipments and spare parts 77.26 5
6. Skilled personnel 76.31 6
7. Technical guidance 66.79 10
8. Processor/market 86.31 1
9. Post-harvest paraphernalia 78.45 4
10. Transport 82.86 2
Fig. 3. Impact of COVID-19 lockdown on shrimp processing (n = 21).

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M. Kumaran, et al. Aquaculture 531 (2021) 735922

Table 2 processing facility, non-availability of desired size quality shrimp, lack

Shrimp procurement price fixed by the Andhra Pradesh State Govt. during of export orders and insufficient storage facility with small scale buyers
lockdown. were the constraints reported by 65, 56, 54 and 31% respectively of the
Size of the harvested shrimp in g Minimum procurement price in INR processor respondents. Moreover, processors were battling a period of
low demand due to weakening economic situations in the importing
Above 30 430 (5.7 USD) countries, resulting in accumulation of unsold inventory filling the cold
25–29 310 (4.1 USD)
storage limits, thus hampering further procurement. Closure of local
20–24 260 (3.5 USD)
1719 240 (3.2 USD) markets due to lock down and absence of cold storage space with local
14–16 220 (2.9 USD) buyers further strained the marketing and distribution system. The
12–13 200 (2.6 USD) sudden nature and severity of the lockdown left little scope for identi­
11 190 (2.5USD)
fying suitable domestic substitutes in the short term but may spur less
10 180 (2.4 USD)
reliance on global agri-food value chains in the future (FAO, 2020b;
(Approximately 1 USD is equal to 75 Indian Rupees.) Stephens et al., 2020; Schmidhuber et al., 2020).

3.4. The overall impact and economic loss to the sector

The overall impact and economic loss were estimated based on the
responses of the stakeholders irrespective of their affiliation. The pan­
demic related disruptions adversely affected the shrimp aquaculture
sector to the extent of 30–40% in economic terms (Fig. 4). Most of the
respondents (85%) opined that the expected decline in shrimp export
performance to the major importing nations whose economies were
also severely affected was a major impact. This may be due to the re­
duction of farming area and production, as expressed by 81% of re­
spondents. Therefore, it is expected that farmed shrimp production and
export could decline by 40% compared to the previous year (Fig. 5).
Fig. 4. Perceived overall impact of COVID-19 Lock Down (> 30%) (n = 504).
About 75% of the respondents predicted that the shrimp market price in
the current season would be reduced by more than 35%. The loss of
employment for the workers during the season was 30–40%, as re­
ported by 67% of the respondents. The shrimp supply chain is heavily
dependent on diversely skilled labour. It offers wide range of jobs op­
portunities, such as farm management, technical help at hatcheries,
farms and processing units, personnel for manufacturing and marketing
of inputs, wholesale and retail businesses, workers to operate farm
machinery, vehicles, civil works, plumbing, mechanical and electrical
equipment.
Labourers from the local villages also could not attend work due to
movement restrictions. In-house migrant workers went home due to
fear of infection and lack of salary assurance/subsistence from the
employers. The aquaculture labourers were un-organized and with the
loss of their employment do not have social protections as reported
Fig. 5. Projected decline in the Indian shrimp production and export due to
elsewhere (Harper et al., 2020). The sealing of state and district borders
COVID-19.
and restrictions on day to day movement of people affected their access
to work places causing huge loss of employment and income. Similar
support to the farmers, the state Government of Andhra Pradesh ne­ views were expressed by international organizations and institutions
gotiated with the Seafood Exporters Association of India and assured a (Bennett et al., 2020; FAO, 2020b; International Monetary Fund (IMF),
minimum procurement price for different sizes of the harvested shrimps 2020; Schmidhuber et al., 2020; Stephens et al., 2020). As a whole, this
(Table 2) (Undercurrent News Dt. 1/5/2020, 2020). However, 67% of study estimated a probable loss of about 40% to the Indian shrimp
the respondents reported that the processors refused to pay the price sector in each component, the total loss in value terms being 1.50 bil­
fixed by the Government, citing the poor quality of harvested shrimp. lion USD (Table 3). However, the impact in each component as well as
Inadequate quantity of raw material (harvested shrimp) to run the the overall economic loss would be much higher than that projected, if

Table 3
Covid 19 lockdown: approximate estimate of economic loss to the sector.
Components/subsector Annual capacity/ Assumed that 60% of (A) is Unit cost @ 40% loss
resource (A) done in this season (B)
Approximate loss in Approximate loss in In
units million USD

Seed production (post larvae PL-billion seeds) 70 42 40 NP/PL 16.8 89.60

Feed (million tonnes) 1.3 0.78 Rs.80/Kg 0.312 33.30
Farming & Production (million tonnes) 0.8 0.48 Rs.350/Kg 0.192 896.00
Market and Export (million tonnes) 0.62 0.372 Rs.500/Kg 0.148 99.20
Employment including hatchery, farm, inputs, 1.2 0.48 Rs.500/day 57.6 384.00
processing etc. (million people/million man days)
Total (in million USD) 1502.10

(Approximately 1 USD is equal to 75 Indian Rupees; 100 NP = 1 Indian rupee).

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M. Kumaran, et al. Aquaculture 531 (2021) 735922

Table 4
Short and medium term mitigation measures suggested by the study.
Sl. No Sub-systems Immediate/short term (current year) Medium term (in 2–5 years)

1 Seed production ➢ Govt. of India may take efforts to import SPF brood stock ➢ Establishment of Brood stock Multiplication Centres to ensure the in-house
from overseas suppliers through special cargo flights. supply of shrimp brooders.
➢ Strengthening the existing Aquaculture Quarantine Facility ➢ Establishment of additional Aquaculture Quarantine Facilities one each in
to ensure adequate supply of imported brood stocks. east and west coasts to ensure adequate supply of imported brood stocks.
➢ Promotion of species diversification with indigenous species like Indian
White Shrimp and Black Tiger Shrimp for farming with SPF strains.
2 Shrimp farming ➢ Adoption of nursery rearing to enhance survival and better ➢ Development of novel production systems and better-fit technology
growth. packages to ensure sustainable shrimp production.
➢ Shorter duration crops with high stocking densities to ➢ Implementation of govt.fixed inputs cost and procurement price for farmed
produce smaller size shrimps for local markets. shrimps.
➢ Adoption of phase wise stocking in tune with seed
availability and harvest as per the market demand.
3 Processing and ➢ Enforcing the processors to adhere to the minimum support ➢ Establishment of cold storage facilities and promotion of domestic market
marketing price fixed by the government. for farmed shrimp.
➢ Updating communication portals to forecast shrimp demand
at local and international markets and shrimp prices.
4 Labour and social ➢ Special arrangements to bring back migrant labourers and ➢ Implementation of social security measures like minimum wages, health
system provision of essential goods for their sustenance. cover, life insurance and gratuity for full-time labourers.
➢ Immediate relief package and free supply of essential goods
for sustenance of their livelihood.

the lockdown and other restrictions continue in the next cropping alone. Farmers and hatchery operators are looking for massive relief
season. packages from the government to minimize the negative economic
impact and sustain this dynamic agribusiness sector which earned a
foreign exchange of 5.0 billion USD for the country last year. This in­
4. Mitigation measures suggested and Government initiatives
vestigation has provided an initial assessment of the pandemic based on
the stakeholder's perspective. However, the situation is dynamic and
The Governments both at the national and state levels took instant
further follow-up assessments at the state and national levels may be
remedial measures like notifying aquaculture as an essential activity
required to fully understand the impact that this pandemic has had on
thereby easing the restrictions for the movement of inputs and people,
Indian shrimp aquaculture sector.
fixing a minimum procurement price for the farmed shrimp and
opening departmental retail outlets etc. However, the implementation
Declaration of Competing Interest
of these mitigation measures at the ground level need additional efforts
and follow-up using the government mechanism. In addition, the
Government of India has announced a major scheme, the Prime The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
Minister Fisheries Development Scheme (Pradhan Mantri Matsya interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influ­
Sampada Yojana-PMMSY) for facilitating a ‘Blue Revolution’ by leap­ ence the work reported in this paper.
frogging aquaculture production. The PMMSY envisages harnessing the
fisheries potential through various measures such as strengthening Acknowledgement
value chain, measures for doubling the income, employment genera­
tion, economic and social security for fish farmers adhering to sus­ The authors sincerely thank the stakeholders in the shrimp farming
tainability principles. The outlay for the scheme is Rs.20,050 crores sector: the hatchery operators, farmers, processors, field professionals
(approx.267 Million USD) with a plan to implement it over a five year and development officials for responding to the survey and providing
period from 2020–21 to 2024–25 in all the States/Union Territories of their valuable inputs. The authors sincerely acknowledge the support
India. Further, based on the results of the present study, short and and guidance rendered by the Fisheries Division of the Indian Council
medium-term measures have been suggested to minimize the adverse of Agricultural Research, New Delhi. The help rendered by
impact of the pandemic and similar unforeseen risks in future (Table 4). Dr.G.Gopikrishna, retired Principal Scientist and Head, Division of
It is important that stakeholders of different segments need to com­ Genetics, Nutrition and Biotechnology in correcting the manuscript is
municate frequently and work together with the government depart­ sincerely acknowledged.
ments to develop essential policies to ensure sustainable shrimp aqua­
culture in the country. Appendix A. Supplementary data

Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://

5. Conclusion
doi.org/10.1016/j.aquaculture.2020.735922.

This sectoral assessment has clearly indicated that COVID-19 lock­

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