The shrimp and prawn culture industries in India and Bangladesh still depend on wild fry. However, expanding production and the trend towards intensification, especially in India, will require the development of hatchery industries in these countries. Since the private sector is likely to be the engine for this development, BOBP undertook activities to transfer smallscale hatchery technology as directly as possible to this sector.

In India, this took the form of training small-scale entrepreneurs in tiger shrimp hatchery technology and providing financial support to the Government of West Bengal for the construction of a demonstration hatchery. Of eight trainees in India, one has set up a shrimp hatchery. The shrimp/prawn hatchery in West Bengal was completed, but not put into production.

In Bangladesh, a small-scale demonstration freshwater prawn hatchery was set up in Chittagong District. A new hatchery technology, using brine and a simple recirculating biofilter, was found to be feasible. Both government and private sector participants were trained in the hatchery. Direct assistance in the form of training and equipment was given to four private groups. Three of them completed prawn hatchery construction by the end of 1993 and one of them went into production.