The rules of business of Fisheries Department envisage promotion and development of fish and shell fish culture. Worldwide shrimp/ prawn are cultured and consumed being a delicacy. These are delicious and nutritious crustaceous. So far their culture in Pakistan has not been carried out on commercial scale. However, sporadic reports on culture of different species of prawns are available in Pakistan.
Owing to their commercial importance as a food commodity and also keeping in view the deployment of untapped niches of the aquatic ecosystems, the Department of Fisheries has been focusing on the culture of the shrimps and prawns.
In this context post larva of two prawn species namely Macrobrachium rosenbergii and Penaeus vannamei have been imported from Thailand and these have been successfully reared in different Nursery Units of Punjab at Sargodha, Muzaffargarh and also in earthen ponds at Fisheries Research & Training Institute, Lahore. However, success in breeding these animals has not been achieved so far and Department of Fisheries is giving impetus on successful breeding and later culture of shrimps in the country to add to aquatic protein production. Proposal to carry out a study on local fauna of freshwater prawns of Punjab, as well as breeding of important prawn species is also in the pipe line.