ICAR-CIBA formed a strategic alliance with an entrepreneur Mr. Raju Bhogil from Ahmednagar District of Maharashtra for establishing a small scale farm based feed mill. Diversification of aquaculture is gaining considerable momentum in India in general and Maharashtra in particular. Various species of finfish is being attempted for culture in inland and brackishwater in Maharashtra. The major bottleneck for the large scale propagation of aquaculture is the availability of cost effective & quality feeds, as the formulated feeds are totally transported from the East coast. In an effort to promote the aquaculture in the country, CIBA has entered into series of MOUs with state government/ private entrepreneur for the production of indigenously developed formulated feeds for various species. In this context the current initiative is to establish a farm based small sale feed mill to process indigenous formulated functional and grow-out feeds used for farmed species in that state by signing a MoU on 19th July 2023, at CIBA, HQ, Chennai.
During the event, Dr. K.K. Lal, Director, CIBA, impressed upon the quality of feed vis-a-vis the cost of production. Further, he emphasized that this farm based feed mill initiative is the first of its kind in state of Maharashtra and would be a boon for aqua farmers in the region. Mr. Raju Bhogil, the start-up entrepreneur, opined that there is a considerable demand for quality feeds for use in aquaculture farming in the state and this initiative will be helping the small and medium farmers. Dr. K. Ambasankar, Principal Scientist and team leader briefed about the significance of this initiative and opined that the success of this small scale feed mill would pave the way for diversification and growth of the sector in a faster trajectory. The Institute Technology Management (ITMU)-ABI Unit of CIBA coordinated the event, and SIC-ITMU, highlighted the success of the CIBA technologies taken up by the entrepreneurs, and proposed the vote of thanks.
