Professor Kenton Morgan has joined hands with Aquaconnect, IDH, The Sustainable Trade Initiative and for a project to predict shrimp diseases by using machine learning. The project aims to benefit 13.000 ha of farm area in India in the next two years.
Shrimp diseases cause significant economic losses. The Asian shrimp industry alone reported to have lost at least US$20 billion in a decade. Diseases in the State of Andhra Pradesh that constitutes of nearly 70 per cent of Indian shrimp production are expected to cut down production by 40 per cent this year. Diseases have economic, social and environmental consequences as natural resources such as shrimp feed etc are wasted.
Aquaconnect helps Indian shrimp farmers to manage their farm operations efficiently and improving productivity by using artificial intelligence. Aquaconnect’s FarmMOJO mobile app uses machine learning technology to analyse feed and growth patterns in relation to animal health. The app provides insights to the farmers and suggests appropriate advice for better disease management.
Rajamanohar, CEO, Aquaconnect said, “The Government of India is ramping up support for the aquaculture sector, launching the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) to catalyse Blue Revolution 2.0. We are excited to partner with IDH and Prof. Kenton Morgan on pioneering the machine learning efforts in shrimp epidemiology studies to help the Indian farmers to mitigate the risks due to diseases and support long term sustainability of this Industry “
Aquaconnect aims to enhance FarmMOJO’s disease prediction model by using Aquatic Epidemiology, provided by Prof. Kenton Morgan. Professor Kenton Morgan, University of Liverpool has over 40 years of experience in epidemiology. The IDH Aquaculture Program aims to link aquatic epidemiology to the sector. IDH supports and pilots the linkage in several geographies as to tackle feed and disease issues.
Flavio Corsin, Program Director – Aquaculture at IDH, Sustainable Trade Initiative and a trained aquatic epidemiologist said, ‘’Shrimp farming practices and environment change continuously, and these changes can affect disease occurrence in complex and unpredictable ways. Integrating epidemiological tools into Aquaconnect’s farm management app will allow farmers to benefit from Artificial Intelligence in their efforts to understand, predict and prevent diseases’’.
