NEW DELHI, 8 August 2020: With a mission to shrimp and fish aquaculture farmers to improve their farm productivity, Chennai based Aquaconnect announced the launch of Aquaconnect HUBS, a first of its kind Direct to Farmer initiative.

The integrated HUBS will help to accelerate the technology adoption with aqua farmers, improve last mile connectivity and also source feed, health products & farm equipment.

The first HUBS have been launched in the coastal cities of Andhra Pradesh - Bapatla, Ongole, and Avanigadda.

The company plans to launch 25 HUBS in the next two years in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat and aims to engage more than 45000 farmers.

The company said in a statement that HUBS will also enable direct connection to Banks for farmers to secure loans. The company has empaneled leading Banks and facilitates aquaculture loans to the fish and shrimp farmers. The HUBS will provide farm advisory solutions and act as a diagnostic centre for aquaculture.

Agri sector had a limited impact of COVID - 19 and it is the right time to improve the ecosystem for aqua farmers according to the company. The hubs will improve the support system for farmers and provide services on ground today, the statement adds.

With this initiative, the company believes that it will directly and indirectly employ 700+ people via the HUBS.

Speaking on this, CEO and Co-Founder of Aquaconnect Rajamanohar Somasundaram said, “It is exciting to nurture a very underserved aqua-farmer market. A brick and mortar approach will bridge and accelerate technology adoption for aqua-farmers and encourage sustainable growth of the Seafood industry.”

“The industry is exploding with opportunities, and we believe that Aquaconnect HUBS will holistically serve the farmers to better their produce quality, output, and eventually farm income,” Somasundaram adds.

India’s government has prioritized the fisheries sector in its 2020 annual budget, setting the target for fisheries production at 20 million metric tons (MT) by 2022-2023.

Aquaconnect works with more than 17,000 fish and shrimp farmers and helps them with its AI-powered farm advisory solution FarmMOJO which supports farmers to monitor and track farming activities such as a change in water quality, feed intake, shrimp growth, and disease occurrence precisely. The full-stack aquaculture technology venture improves farm productivity and sustainability through AI and Satellite remote sensing technologies.