India is one of the leading countries as far as aquaculture is concerned with a long tradition of inland and brackish water aquaculture. Commercial shrimp farming1 started gaining roots only during the mid-1980s and peaked in the 1990s. There has been a considerable fall in the production rate since 1994-95.
The leading maritime states engaged in shrimp culture, such as Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Kerala, exhibited a similar trend of increasing production intensity during the first five years of the 1990s, which declined and exhibited a stable trend thereafter.