ICAR-CIBA entered into the MOU with ESSO-NIOT for technical collaboration in the promotion of aquaculture systems in the country. The MoU was signed on 25th September, 2018 by Dr.K.K.Vijayan, the Director CIBA and Dr. M.A. Atmanand, the Director of NIOT in the presence of, Dr. Madhavan Rajeevan, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences(MoES); Chairman, Earth System Science Organization and Dr.Vipin Chandra Joint Secretary, MoES, at NIOT campus, Chennai.
The MOU will help to contribute towards the roadmap conceived by the MoES ‘Farming the Oceans for the Future’ to promote India’s blue economy. Partnership of NIOT with its blend of engineering expertise in finfish cages and CIBA with its proven technologies in hatchery, farming and feed biotechnology for candidate finfish species such as Seabass, would help in expanding the finfish cage culture operation, in the depths from 5 m to 100m. This has the potential for the production of 5 MMT of marine fish, by utilizing just 1% of the Indian EEZ, once the procedure for leasing and site specific cage culture systems are in place, with institutional and private sector participation. The initiative will facilitate increased fish production, generation of employment income, along the coastal belt of India.