ICAR-CIBA, Chennai signed MoU with Kings Infra Ventures Pvt. Ltd for scientific collaboration during a seminar on “Sustainable Aquaculture: India’s potential to be the Global Reader” was hosted by Kings Infra, a BSE- listed market leader in sustainable aquaculture on September 25, 2023, in New Delhi. The partnership, inter-alia will cover promoting domestication of indigenous native species like Indian white shrimp and promote diversified systems including Biofloc/ RAS/ IPRS based systems for sustainable aquaculture. This partnership also will provide need-based training, demonstrations and technical support for brackishwater finfish, shellfish and seaweed farming.
Shri.N.K.Premachandran, Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha from Kerala delivered the inaugural address said that while the aquaculture sector has been relatively untouched thus far, I firmly believe that it holds immense potential to propel India toward its 10 trillion-dollar economic goal.
Dr. J.K. Jena, (DDG), Fisheries Science, ICAR graced the occasion and in his keynote speech he spoke about the challenges in the sector and ways to reach the target growth through industry-academia collaborations.
Dr. Kuldeep K. Lal, Director, ICAR- CIBA, Chennai, was the Guest of Honour and called for emphasizing diversification and recommended best management practices for a sustainable farming during his speech.
The highlight of the seminar was the national launch of SISTA360, a digital platform providing traceable, transparent, sustainable and profitable aquaculture. “The ultimate goal of SISTA is to make farming competitive and profitable by providing farmers with information on farming through 24-hour help desk and enabling farmers to get seed, feed and other aquaculture inputs at competitive prices” said Mr Shaji Baby John, Chairman of the Company. The initiative can also enable farmers to negotiate directly with the exporters for better prices.
Dr Akshya Panigrahi, Principal Scientist and team leader of the collaboration explained the need for thrust on indigenous species and system diversification during panel discussion. The program connected to many satellite farmers gathering which were organized simultaneously in different states like Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan. The technical session had many informative presentations and interactions through panel discussion.
