awn produced in India.
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| According to the document, the government would be a proactive facilitator to serve the needs of the people and to promote the participation of both private and cooperative sectors in creating the required infrastructure.
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| It has also stressed upon balanced exploitation of underutilised resources, besides advocating community development. The government will also encourage, if required, joint ventures with foreign companies, especially in shrimp and fish exports.
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| The policy document has, in particular, envisaged the exploitation of untapped marine resource potential.
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| At present, the state ranks fifth in marine fish production in the country. It has also laid emphasis on the development of tuna fishery where the fishing trawlers are proposed to be converted into long liners or gill netters among others to focus on exploitation of mid-sea fishery wealth.
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| Apart from this, fishermen will be encouraged to use modern fishing inputs, navigational equipment, VHF sets, life floats, geo positioning system, fish finders and other modern technologies.
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| The development of fish landing facilities and fishing harbours, strengthening infrastructure to support traditional fish processing, development of road network and exploitation of untapped marine resources potential are among the few important steps that have been proposed in the new policy, which is under finalisation.
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| The fisheries sector in Andhra Pradesh contributes over 2.83 per cent to the gross state domestic product (GSDP), which witnessed an annual production of 9.45 lakh tonnes of fish/prawn during the year 2003-04.
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| The state contributes about Rs 2,500 crore by way of marine product exports, which is nearly 40 per cent of the total marine product exports from the country.
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| According to government figures, the total value of fish and prawn produced comes to Rs, 6,700 crore. The total fish/prawn production in the state is expected to grow to 12.75 lakh tonnes by 2010.
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| Apart from 974 kms of seacoast, inland water resources like reservoirs, perennial and long seasonal tanks are having water spread areas of over 8.50 lakh hectares of land suitable for brackish water aquaculture.
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| The aqua culture ponds have been formed to take up fish culture in 90,000 hectares which include fresh water prawn in 32,000 hectares and brackish water shrimp in 78,000 hectares.
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| As of now, there are four fishing harbours in the state at Visakhapatnam, Kakinada, Nizampatnam and Machilipatnam. Of the 18 landing centres sanctioned by the Government of India, over 11 are under execution. There are over 1,836 mechanised, 4,562 motorised and 16,732 traditional fishing crafts in the state.
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| Viral outbreak and other diseases that plague the shrimp farming are a major concern for both the industry and the government.
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| The draft policy addresses this problem by advocating expansion of farming areas in an eco-friendly way like organising a cluster for every 100 hectares, regular coordination and information exchange between disease diagnostic laboratories, research institutes for identification of new diseases and other measures.
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| Newer technological interventions for increasing fish production such as pen culture to rear seed into fingerling, introduction of cage culture in reservoirs, promoting alternate species like sea bass, crabs and other new species for culture too find place in the draft paper. |
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