A Study on Shrimp Production and Marketing in Batticaloa District

Abstract

A study was conducted on shrimp production and marketing in the Batticaloa district during the period from December 2009 to January 2010. The survey covered 90 farmers from 8 villages, located in 6 D.S. divisions in the Batticaloa district. Stratified Random sampling method was used in this survey and data collected through pre tested structured questionnaire. Most of the farmers (86.7 %) used their own money, as a source of investment for shrimp production.67.8% of shrimp farmers adopted intensive farming method while other 32.2% of farmers practiced semi intensive farming for shrimp production. All the shrimp farmers (100%) depend on private hatcheries to get fingerlings. About 46.7 % of the farmers sold through middle men, 38.9 % of farmers sold at urban market, 12.2% of farmers conducted directly sold in export market and 2.2% of farmers sold in Colombo market. Factors affecting determined by the use of Cobb-Douglas production function. Cost of feed per crop, cost of pond preparation, and feed conversion ratio highly impact on shrimp production. Average price of shrimps/kg, total production of shrimps per crop, and cost of leasing of land / year had an impact on the profitability.