Smt. J. Mercykutty Amma, Honourable Minister of Fisheries, Harbour Engineering and Cashew Industries, Govt. of Kerala visited ICAR- CIBA, Chennai on 13th Feb 2017. Honourable Minister was accompanied by the Fisheries Secretary, Kerala state and Fisheries Officers. Dr K.K. Vijayan, the Director, ICAR-CIBA welcomed the team and explained the role played by CIBA in promoting brackishwater aquaculture in this country by citing the various achievements of CIBA and ongoing research on various aspects. Earlier in the morning, honourable Minister and her team visited CIBA’s Muttukadu Experimental Station, which is 30 km south of Chennai on the coastal highway connecting Pondicherry. At Muttukadu station, they visited pilot scale feed mill, crab hatchery, micro algal research facilities, fish hatchery and shrimp hatchery. Honourable minister and her team were very much impressed on the feed mill facility and indigenous feed developed by CIBA for different life stages of farmed finfish and shell fishes. State fisheries minister stressed the need of working together of state government and research institution such as CIBA in the development of brackishwater aquaculture sector in Kerala. Being impressed with CIBA technologies during her visit, she suggested the scientists of ICAR-CIBA come up in the propagation of cost-effective technologies amenable to Indian conditions for the betterment of fish farmers and a coastal population who depend on this water for their livelihood and nutritional security. Also, she recalled the MoU signed between the ICAR-CIBA and Matsyafed of Kerala, and suggested to use the partnership for the developmental initiatives for the brackishwater farming development in Kerala. Later, the director of fisheries Dr Karthikeyan IAS interacted with the Director and all the scientist of ICAR-CIBA. He suggested initiating joint initiatives between CIBA and Kerala Government in the areas of feed development, production of quality seed for indigenous shrimp such as Peneaus indicus , modular hatchery technology for Karimeen (Pearlspot), crab hatchery, multispecies hatchery and integrated farming systems such as Pokkali polyculture
