A freshwater prawn farm is an aquaculture business designed to raise and produce freshwater prawns or shrimp1 for human consumption. Freshwater prawn farming shares many characteristics with, and many of the same problems as, marine shrimp farming. Unique problems are introduced by the developmental life cycle of the main species (the giant river prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii).[1]
The global annual production of freshwater prawns (excluding crayfish and crabs) in 2003 was about 280,000 tons, of which China produced some 180,000 tons, followed by India and Thailand with some 35,000 tons each. Additionally, China produced about 370,000 tons of Chinese river crab (Eriocheir sinensis).[2]
- ^ New, M. B.: Farming Freshwater Prawns; FAO Fisheries Technical Paper 428, 2002. ISSN 0429-9345.
- ^ Data extracted from the FAO Fisheries Global Aquaculture Production Database Archived 2005-09-27 at the Wayback Machine for freshwater crustaceans. The most recent data sets are for 2003 and sometimes contain estimates. Accessed June 28, 2005.