Entrepreneurs urged to invest in mariculture to enhance fish production

A meet on mariculture has urged industrialists to invest money in this sector to enhance fish production.

J. K. Jena, Deputy Director-General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New Delhi, asked industrialists to come forward and concentrate on mariculture besides their entrepreneurial initiatives in shrimp farming.

Since the Centre is deliberate on eradicating poverty by 2030, it will promote and encourage all initiatives to increase the production in food and nutrition sectors, he said adding that mariculture was one of the best alternatives for ensuring food security in the country, he said.

He was speaking at a function organised at the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute to mark 37 years of mariculture research, education and development in the country.

A Gopalakrishnan, Director of CMFRI, said private-public partnership was the need of the hour to boost mariculture. There is a need to emulate successful mariculture models implemented by the South-East Asian countries where mariculture has grown significantly catering to the food and economic security of those countries. The Chinese model of developing seafood-based products from plant-origin materials such as seaweeds and micro algae can complement the country's requirements on growing demand for seafood, he said.

Apart from the traditional monotonous single species-oriented culture systems, India should go for multiple species in mariculture, he added.

CMFRI is in the process of preparing the guidelines for formulating the National Mariculture Policy to enhance the sea cage fish farming ventures in the country, he added.

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