Farmers engaged in cage farming of cobia, the most popular marine fish species, have sought the intervention of the fisheries authorities in fixing guaranteed price as they seldom get good price for the fish. Pricing was the prominent problem faced by those engaged in cage farming in Olaikuda, Pamban, Mandapam and Maraikayarpattinam in the district as they could not sell the fish beyond Rs. 240 per kg though the species was being sold for a minimum of Rs. 350 in the domestic market. Timely availability of hatchlings was another problem faced by them, said the farmers who turned up for the consultative meeting, organised by the Centre for Marine Finfish Culture (CMFC), an arm of the Tamil Nadu Fisheries University (TNFU) here on Friday. As they could not lay the cages when the sea was rough, they kept shifting from south and north sides of the sea in Pamban and Mandapam areas and faced problem in getting the seeds during the two seasons from June to October in the south and from February to June in the north side, they said. S. Ephrem, who had been engaged in cage farming for the past one and a half years, said traders formed a cartel and fixed the price for the fish. The farming would be more lucrative and profitable if the TNFU or the fisheries department intervened and fix a guaranteed price, he opined. They procured hatchlings from Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Aquaculture, Kerala at the rate of Rs. 40,000 per kg and harvested an average of one tonne in five months. They fed the hatchlings with trash fish, available locally and achieved a survival rate of an impressive 80 %, he added.
2017, The Hindu.