Fish Farmers’ Day – India

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Fish Farmers’ Day – India

Category:Updates

July 10th is a significant day in the life of Fish Farmers in India.

Aquaculture without Frontiers congratulates India, all the fisheries scientists/researchers and all of the fish farmers on its aquaculture success – long may this continue!

We are reminded by our good friend, Professor Dinesh Kaippilly, Head of Aquaculture, KUFOS of this very special day in India.

At present, India is the second largest aquaculture producer in the world following China and besides providing livelihood security to cover 14 million people, the sector has been one of the major foreign exchange earners.

We learn from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280245049_Why_Do_We_Celebrate_Fish_Farmers’_Day_on_10th_July_and_Why_Prof_Dr_Hiralal_Choudhury_is_Remembered_on_This_Day that when India was grappling with food and protein shortage at the end of World War II, fish culture activities got a boost in India and the trade in fish seed expanded.

An important development during that time was the establishment of Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute (CIFRI) at Barrackpore in 1947 by the government of India, where fisheries officers from different states were trained – this was known as Inland Fisheries Training Centre and now as CIFE Kolkata Centre.

With this establishment, several small ponds around Howrah constituted a network of nurseries that turned to be the centres of supply chain of fry and systematic marketing became possible with the establishment of Fish Seed Syndicate.

The major carp culture sector of today owes its present flourishing status to Prof. Chaudhuri, who ushered in the system of ‘Induced Breeding of major carps’ through administration of carp pituitary extract in the breeding of major carps and standardised the system. It was on 10th July 1957, the first success in induced breeding was achieved at Angul in Odisha by Dr. Chaudhuri with the support from Dr. Alikunhi. The spawn that was produced out of this experiment was successfully raised into fry and later into fingerling. This pioneering work over years has led to aqua-explosion in the country principally through quality major carp seed production and supplies to fish farmers for culture from hundreds of hatcheries that sprang in the country based on induced breeding technology. Indian fisheries sector has made great strides in the past five decades showing incredible increase, from 0.75 million tonnes in 1950-51 to 9.58 million tonnes in 2013-14.


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