Seed is a major input in shrimp farming and all the farmers and entrepreneurs depend on
hatchery seeds. For expansion of brackishwater shrimp farming, a regular and steady supply
of quality shrimp seeds in large quantities at a given time for stocking Is essential. Hatcheries
are the source for the supply of quality hatchery seeds and stocking wild seeds Is banned.
Presently, in Tamll Nadu there ore 68 shrimp hatcheries with a production capacity of 3000
million post-larvae. The survey was carried out In Nagapattinam and Thanjavur In two districts
of Tamil Nadu. A sample of 300 shrimp farmers was Interviewed randomly for the study. This
paper presents the prbblems pertaining to shrlmp seed encountered by the farmers and
suggestions to overcome the same. The problems encountered by the farmers in both districts
were lack of assurance on quality seeds, non-existence of government agency for regulating
the price of seeds, high cost of seeds, non-availability of seeds from research institutes,
inadequate supply of hatchery seeds, mortality of seeds during transportation, mixed seeds
and deceptive method of counting the seeds. Suggestions given by them to overcome the
problems were that the government research institutes should set up some mare hatcheries
and virus free Nauplius shoutd be supplied to the farmers, assurance about seed quality from
research institute and production of improved broodstock from government research
laboratories. Since wjthout a heaithy broodstock shrimp farmers cannot hope to get quality
seed, PCR was suggested as a sensitive diagnostic tool for detecting viral infection but due to
various gaps in training this tool has not been used with consistent results
