Fishwise.

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

India’s smallholder shrimp farmers produce one of the world’s most traded seafood commodities. However, individual farm-level improvements aren’t enough to drive systemic change. The Krishna-Godavari Delta Place-Based Initiative (PBI) aims to deliver lasting environmental and social outcomes at the landscape level in key sourcing regions, grounded in the resilience of local farmers and communities.

OPPORTUNITY

Systemic Change in India’s Shrimp Sector Requires a Different Approach

India has grown into one of the world’s largest shrimp producers, generating over $5 billion in value annually. 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, including disease risks, extreme weather events, price instability, debt cycles, and rising production costs.

Traditional sustainability tools such as audits, certifications, and improvement projects help improve practices at the farm or fishery level, but they weren’t designed to tackle the systemic challenges that shape entire production landscapes and seascapes, such as those that stem from shared water resources, infrastructure and governance gaps, inconsistent labor conditions, lack of climate resiliency, and fragmentation and complexity of the supply chain.

The Krishna-Godavari Delta PBI is built to do exactly that. By bringing together the full range of stakeholders across the region—farmers, communities, supply chain actors, government, and civil society—it sets shared goals, coordinates action, and drives improvements at the landscape scale.

Stronger Farmers, Stronger Supply Chains

As farmers solve for their greatest challenges, a stronger foundation within sourcing communities will lead to less risk and greater stability for the Indian shrimp supply chain:

The PBI follows an iterative model of scoping, co-design, and co-implementation, expanding in scale and ambition as trust and capacity grow. Unlike top-down approaches, it starts by bringing together the full range of stakeholders across a production landscape to set shared goals, coordinate action, and drive improvement at a regional scale—addressing the environmental, social, and governance conditions that no single actor can change alone. The result is a plan that regional stakeholders actually own and are committed to implementing.

Our geographic scope centers on smallholder shrimp farms located within the state of Andhra Pradesh and across six representative mandals (Mandavalli, Kaikaluru, Veervassaram, Sakhinetipalli, Malakipuram, and Razole) historically associated with East and West Godavari, now organized under Dr. BR Ambedkar Konaseema [“Konaseema”], Eluru, and West Godavari districts in the Krishna-Godavari Delta. This initial scale integrates local production within the broader Andhra Pradesh supply chain, where production relies on a complex network of irrigation canals and borewell systems as well as larger water bodies like Kolleru Lake and the Krishna and Godavari Rivers. The densely situated aquaculture production hubs are closely interconnected with sensitive habitats such as mangrove forests, wildlife sanctuaries, riparian areas, and wetlands. The PBI’s scaled approach will aim to include at least 100,000 acres (40,500 ha) of improved aquaculture pond area and priority habitats.
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). Source: Clark Labs 2022 and Google Earth 2026.
Step 1

Stakeholder Mapping

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

Indian Shrimp Aquascape →
Step 2

Community Public Forums

More than 200 farmers and community members from the six initial PBI mandals (Mandavalli, Kaikaluru, Veeravasaram, Sakhinetipalli, Malikipuram, and Razole) gathered to define what is driving instability on the ground, and identify priorities.

Step 3

Co-design Workshop

59 participants—farmers, processors, exporters, technicians, self-help group members, government representatives, and academics—met for 2.5 days to collaboratively identify practical pathways forward and areas where collective action could drive meaningful progress. Through this process, participants aligned around nine solution areas in response to the three priorities, and gathered 117 individual commitments.

Step 4

Validation Events

Once the solution areas were organized and translated into Telugu, the CAP was brought back to the communities to ensure that the plan clearly articulated their needs and commitments.

Step 5

Publication of the Community Action Plan

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

“
I am most excited about the fact that small-scale shrimp farmers, village organizations, youth, Fisheries Department officials, and other stakeholders came together to develop the CAP. This collective effort has created a strong sense of ownership and commitment among all stakeholders.
V.Gandhi Babu
Director and Founder, ASDS

2026-2031 PLAN

Putting the Community Action Plan into Motion

The five-year community-validated CAP operationalizes the 117 commitments into a clear, measurable framework organized into six workstreams that align farmers, industry, and local governance. This is not a strategy document; this is an operational plan with built-in accountability backed by community members.

80%
of farms registered

Registration of Farms

Mobilize smallholder farmers to receive formal registration and work with major processors to update policies that incentivize sourcing from legally registered farms.
30%
of farmers in active clusters or FPOs

Clusters and Farmer Producer Organizations (FPO) Formation

Enable smallholder farmers' unity and coordination to drive collective action.
80%
of farmers in newly formed clusters receive farming 101 training

Improve Farm Management Practices

Enhance regional operational resilience by standardizing practices and delivering foundational aquaculture training programs.
60%
of cluster farmers have improved access to technologies

Technology Innovation and Adoption

Increase the physical and financial accessibility of modern data-driven and operational aquaculture technologies.
50%
of farmers confident in seed quality and have better access

Broodstock Management

Build smallholder capacity to confidently evaluate seed quality metrics and secure reliable access to high-quality seed.
50%
of farmers confident in feed assessment and have better access

Feed Quality Improvement

Build smallholder capacity to confidently evaluate feed quality metrics and secure reliable access to high-quality feed.
Download the Community Action Plan (English)
Don't know where to start? Tell Us About Your Work.

The path towards a “Mature PBI” is still coming into focus as the handful of PBIs in seafood sourcing regions continue to evolve and develop toward something durable and resilient. A mature PBI could open the door for shrimp coming from this region to be recognized by the market as sustainably and equitably produced. An overarching objective for this project is to bridge between market investment and support, and the realities for farmers on the ground in order to build a thriving supply chain. FishWise is facilitating the design of a market model that 1) defines practical avenues for companies to support outcomes within a sourcing region PBI, and 2) outlines a graduated path for practice improvements so small-scale producers can achieve market requirements, better access the market, and improve traceability. We are actively engaging improver programs and compliance schemes working in the region to inform this process. We are also very interested in hearing directly from brands and end-buyers to ensure market relevance. As CAP implementation progresses, buyers will have the unique opportunity to inform this broader market model creation.

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