A village called Mungamuru (Fig. 1) located in Nellore district, Andhra Pradesh (N  14°48.417′ E  080°02.490′) was selected to study the objectives 1 and 2 for shrimp species in the Indo-UK-Bangladesh  project.

Fig. 1 Location of Mungamuru village and shrimp farms to be selected for project studies

A meeting was conducted on 23.09.2016 at Mungamuru with help of Dr.P.Haribabu, Local Coordinator from the College of Fishery Science, Muthukur, Nellore to create an awareness about this project among shrimp farmers.

Forty shrimp farmers from different areas of Mungamuru village attended the meeting. The Indian investigators such as Dr.A.Sahul Hameed, C.Abdul Hakeem College, Dr.M.Shekhar and Dr.Gopikrishna CIBA and the investigator from UK, Dr.Chris Hauton of Southampton University were present at the meeting to highlight the project to the shrimp farmers.

Dr.P.Haribabu introduced the investigators to the farmers and acted as an interpreter between the investigators and farmers. Dr.Chris highlighted the project objectives and work to be carried out in the village during the project period. He also interacted with the farmers and discussed about their farming activities and their previous experience on WSSV outbreak. Dr.Sahul Hameed explained the importance of the project and the purpose of selecting Mungamuru village for project studies. He described the services such as screening of seeds, monitoring of shrimp and water parameters, and other activities to be carried out during the project period for the benefit of the farmers. He requested all the farmers to cooperate by providing the samples regularly for the success of the project and also for their benefit.

Dr.Shekhar and Dr.Gopikrishna highlighted the importance of the project and also explained their work in the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu. After visiting shrimp farms, the investigators went to the College of Fishery Science and presented their current research work and project work in a meeting arranged with the faculty members and students of the College.