Utrecht (The Netherlands), December 23 2019: Sustainable Trade Initiative,  IDH has  partnered with   AI platform  Aquaconnect and Professor Kenton Morgan of Liverpool Univesity  UK in a project to predict shrimp diseases by using machine learning. The project aims to benefit 13.000 hectares of farm area in India in the next two years.
Aquaconnect aims to enhance FarmMOJO’s disease prediction model by using Aquatic Epidemiology, provided by Prof. Kenton Morgan. Professor Kenton Morgan, University of
Aquaconnect helps Indian shrimp farmers to manage their farm operations efficiently and improving productivity by using artificial intelligence. Aquaconnect’s Farm MOJO mobile app uses machine learning technology to analyse feed and growth patterns with relation to animal health. The app provides insights to the farmers and suggests appropriate advice for better disease management 
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.
Says Flavio Corsin, the Program Director Aquaculture at IDH, the Sustainable Trade Initiative, and a trained aquatic epidemiologist: "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."
Adds Rajamanohar, CEO of Aquaconnect: “The Government of India is ramping up support for the aquaculture sector, launching the Pradhan Mantri MatsyaSampada 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 “
Shrimp diseases cause significant economic losses. The Asian shrimp industry alone reported to have lost at least 20 billion US Dollars in a decade. Diseases in the State of Andhra Pradesh, that constitutes of nearly 70% of Indian shrimp production, are expected to cut down production by 40% this year. Diseases have economic, social and environmental consequences as natural

Aquaconnect is an AI-enabled platform that integrates Asia’s leading network of aquaculture farmers, provides predictive SaaS tools for farm management, and a marketplace. Aquaconnect links their farmer network to the marketplace, where they can transact with feed producers, laboratories, equipment manufacturers, hatcheries, processors, exporters, certification bodies, banks, and insurance companies. 
IDH, the Sustainable Trade Initiative: Headquartered in the Netherlands and funded by multiple governments and foundations, IDH delivers a scalable, economically viable impact on the Sustainable Development Goals. Since 2008, IDH is orchestrating change towards responsible aquaculture. IDH co-founded the ASC together with WWF and accelerated ASC certification. 
Prof. Kenton Morgan is the Professor of Epidemiology, the Institute of Veterinary Science at the University of Liverpool. He is a past president of AVTRW, SVEPM, ISAAE, BCVS. He was a leading epidemiology researcher for ‘Poverty alleviation through control of disease in Asian aquaculture (PACONDAA)’ project in India.