ICAR-Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture, Chennai live-telecasted the inauguration of Agri-Start-up Conclave and Kisan Sammelan at Pusa campus, New Delhi by the honorable Prime Minister Shri. Narendra Modi along with a field day marking the harvest of Front-Line Demonstration (FLD) of cage aquaculture of fishes in coastal brackishwater by ICAR-CIBA at Kottaikkadu village in Chengalpattu district of Tamil Nadu on 17.10.2022. About 321 aqua farmers, farm women, fishers, officials from the start-ups, local panchayat leaders, state department officials, scientists, staff and research scholars have participated in the event. Dr. K.P. Jithendran, Director, ICAR-CIBA who presided over the programme underlined the objectives of PM’s programme on Agri-Start-Up Conclave and Kisan Sammelan to the participants in his address to the participants. He emphasised the importance of Start-Ups in agriculture and aquaculture development in India and CIBA initiatives to promote aquaculture based sustainable livelihood development. He appreciated the Self Help Groups members of Kottaikadu village who have successfully done the nursery rearing and cage culture of seabass with the technical guidance of CIBA.
A partial harvest of 200 kg cage farmed seabass was obtained and sold to the traders and an amount of ₹ 80,000 realized. The average size of fishes was 600 g grown in 5 months culture period from the initial stocking size of 15 g. Dr. Jithendran also congratulated the SCSP team of ICAR-CIBA and Madras Research Centre of ICAR-CMFRI for undertaking the FLD and emphasized the importance of hand holding approach by research institutions and State Department of Fisheries for the large scale adoption of farming technology by the stakeholders. The event was coordinated by Dr. T. Bhuvaneswari, Senior Scientist, AAHED and Dr. Joe Kizhakudan, Principal Scientist, ICAR-CMFRI Madras Research Centre with Dr. R. Subburaj, Chief Technical Officer, FCD and Shri. G. Thiyagarajan, Technical Officer, FCD. Dr. C.V. Sairam, Dr. M. Kailasam, Dr. M. Poornima, Dr. R. Jayakumar, Dr. R. Geetha, Shri. T. Sivaramakrishnan, Dr. Raymond Jani Angel also attended the event.
Research Centres of ICAR-CIBA at Kakdwip, West Bengal and Navasari, Gujarat also telecasted the PM’s programme wherein 186 farmers have participated and interacted with the scientists and clarified their technical doubts in brackishwater aquaculture. Dr. Debasis De, Principal Scientist and Dr. N.S. Sudheer, Scientist at KRC and Mr. Pankaj Patil and Mr. Jose Antony, Scientists at NGRC respectively, coordinated the programme.
