Bathinda, March 17 -- Ahead of shrimp seedling season that starts from April, aquaculturists from the southwest region of Punjab seek a policy change to boost the sector by lowering electricity charges. They say that amid high power usage charges with no subsidy, aquaculturists are drifting away from the shrimp farming, which could have made them earn from uncultivable land.

Farmers say they were encouraged when the then Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) government in 2016-17 introduced shrimp farming in the zero-earning saline areas of southwest districts. A progressive farmer, Rupinder Singh Dhillon, from Jandwala Chrat Singh village in Muktsar said all was going well until 2022 when the state government changed its power policy for shrimp far...