Honourable Minister of the state of Maharashtra, Shri. Deepak Kesarkar for Home (Rural), Finance and Planning and a team of officers in ministry visited CIBA’s Muttukadu Experimental Station, on 19th April 2018. Dr K.K. Vijayan, the Director, CIBA welcomed the team along with the scientist of CIBA and described the role played by CIBA in promoting brackishwater aquaculture in this country by citing the various achievements and technologies developed by CIBA, and on-going research on various aspects. At Muttukadu station, the minister and the team visited the finfish hatchery, shrimp hatchery, pilot scale feed mill, crab hatchery, health lab, soil lab, microalgal research facilities, etc. Honourable minister interacted with the CIBA scientists and was very much impressed with the role played by CIBA in the sector, infrastructure facilities for research and development and technologies developed, especially in seed production and feed production of finfish and shellfish.
Honourable minister in his interaction with scientists stressed the need of working together of Maharashtra state government and research institution such as CIBA in the development of brackishwater aquaculture sector in Maharashtra. He expressed his vision of Dream Konkan with the focused development of farmers, fisheries, tourism, education and industry along with preserving the rich heritage of Konkan region of Maharashtra. Being impressed with CIBA technologies, he insisted the scientists of CIBA come up in the collaborative program for cost-effective farming technologies amenable to the west coast, especially for Sindhudurg for the betterment of fish farmers and a coastal population who depend on this water for their livelihood and nutritional security. The honourable minister expressed his interest to initiate joint programs between CIBA and Maharashtra government in the areas of crab farming, seabass farming and feed development.
