India PBI Landing

Solutions with Cooperation:
Our Shrimp, Our Land, Our Water

సహకారం తో పరి రంనమ రోయ, నామ భూమి, నామ నీరు

The Krishna-Godavari Delta Place-Based Initiative, Andhra Pradesh, India

The Krishna-Godavari Delta Place-Based Initiative (PBI) is designed around a simple premise: lasting landscape-level environmental and social outcomes must be built upon a foundation of resilient farmers and communities. As the initial implementation guide towards strengthening smallholder shrimp farming and well-being, a five-year Community Action Plan was co-created by farmers, communities, and supply chain actors to support local improvement activities across the Krishna-Godavari Delta.

The Problem

Why This Work Matters

India has grown into one of the world’s largest shrimp producers, generating over $5 billion in value. The vast majority comes from Andhra Pradesh, India, where smallholder shrimp farmers make up more than 90 percent of farms, creating a highly fragmented and complex supply chain. Despite the industry’s rapid growth, farmers and communities face mounting challenges.

Disease risk

Diseases like WSSV and EHP devastate crops, with limited coordinated response across farms sharing water infrastructure.

Rising input costs

Feed, seed, and energy costs continue to climb while price instability and debt cycles erode profitability.

Fragmented supply chain

Highly fragmented production limits farmers' negotiating power, market access, and ability to adopt better practices collectively.

Registration gaps

Barriers to formal registration exclude many — especially women and marginalized farmers — from subsidies, insurance, and supply chain access.

Water quality & infrastructure

Inadequate effluent treatment and shared canal infrastructure amplify disease spread and environmental impact.

Equity & inclusion

Women, youth, and smaller-scale operators often lack equitable access to training, finance, and decision-making spaces.

Our Approach

Community Voice at Every Step

To address these complex issues and identify a path forward, FishWise and Monterey Bay Aquarium, alongside Acharya Nagarjuna University, ESSMART, ASDS, Maritech, and local partners, launched an 18-month project funded by the Walmart Foundation. Rather than designing solutions from the outside, Phase 1 placed farmers and communities at the center of the process from start to finish.

Step 1

Stakeholder Mapping

Conducted an extensive stakeholder mapping to understand the system, stakeholders, and existing initiatives. Aquascape was then created to connect people to available services and support, and share some of the key learnings from the mapping exercise.

Step 2

Community Public Forums

More than 200 farmers and community members gathered to discuss priority challenges, which surfaced three overriding priorities: strengthen unity among farmers, improve the quality of seed and feed, and improve disease management as it relates to water quality and infrastructure.

Step 3

Co-design Workshop

59 participants — farmers, processors, exporters, technicians, SHG members, government representatives, and academics — met for 2.5 days to co-design solutions and make 117 individual commitments.

Step 4

Validation Events

Once the work streams were organized into a Community Action Plan (CAP) and translated into the local language, it was brought back to the communities to ensure that the plan clearly articulated their needs and commitments.

Step 5

Community Action Plan Published

The resulting five-year CAP and workplan, validated by the Advisory Committee and farming communities, sets measurable targets across six workstreams through 2031.

Geography

Krishna-Godavari Delta

Phase I of the project’s geographic scope centers on six mandals (Mandavalli, Kaikaluru, Veervassaram, Sakhinetipalli, Malakipuram, and Razole), areas historically associated with East and West Godavari, now organized under West Godavari, Eluru, and Dr. BR Ambedkar Konaseema districts, commonly known as the Krishna-Godavari Delta.

This initial scale integrates local production within the broader Andhra Pradesh supply chain, and whose production relies on a complex network of irrigation canals and borewell systems as well as larger water bodies like Kolleru Lake and the Godavari River. The densely situated aquaculture production hubs are closely interconnected with sensitive habitats such as mangrove forests, wildlife sanctuaries, riparian areas, and wetlands.

Conceptual Overlay of Aquaculture Footprint and Sensitive Habitats in the Krishna-Godavari Delta. This representative graphic integrates administrative district boundaries with regional land-use indicators to illustrate the high density of aquaculture ponds (orange) relative to critical mangrove forests (dark green) and delta wetlands (light green). Note: This map is a conceptual composite generated for visualization purposes; boundaries and environmental layers are aligned for regional context and should not be treated as an exact GIS or geodetically precise reference.

Nine solution areas, six workstreams

The Community Action Plan organizes 117 commitments across six implementation workstreams. By 2031, the vision is a coordinated, inclusive, transparent, and resilient shrimp farming system. The plan is designed to result in active farming clusters and FPOs, reliable seed and feed systems, accessible technology, and a diverse supply chain working with shared accountability. A multi-stakeholder Steering Committee provides ongoing oversight, with quarterly check-ins, annual reflections, and adaptive management.

80%

of farms registered by 2031

Farm registration

Addresses knowledge gaps, barriers for women farmers, and links registration to subsidies, insurance, and supply chain access.

30%

of farmers in active organizations

Clusters & FPOs

Collective negotiation, bulk purchasing, coordinated disease response, and stronger market access through Farmer-Producer Organizations.

80%

of cluster farmers trained

Farm management practices

Standardized SOPs for biosecurity, water quality, feed use, and decent work principles — with measurable adoption tracked by 2031.

60%

of cluster farmers with improved tech access

Technology innovation & adoption

Autofeeders, water quality sensors, renewable energy, AI/IoT tools, and data digitization — with equitable access through rental, financing, and training.

50%

of farmers confident in seed selection

Broodstock management

Training on quality seed identification, cluster-based collective purchasing, and at least 2 hatcheries sharing testing transparency with farmers.

50%

of farmers confident in feed assessment

Feed quality improvement

Improved feed transparency, training on quality assessment, testing mechanisms, and eliminating use of banned substances across feedmills and farms.

Get Involved

Production to market

Interested buyers and retailers can enable and support solutions through many avenues, starting by adding their name to the list of market companies publicly endorsing the project. There are opportunities for companies to contribute funds and other resources, share their expertise and insights, advocate publicly for government and industry support within India, and invite their supply chain partners to participate in various workstreams within the CAP.

Get in Touch →

Resources

Partners

This initiative is a partnership between organizations committed to community-centered sustainability in Indian aquaculture, funded by the Walmart Foundation. The findings and commitments in the Community Action Plan represent the voices and work of the participating farming communities — not any single organization.