ICAR- Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture (ICAR-CIBA), Chennai conducted a five-day training programme on ‘Biofloc based nursery and grow-out culture technology and its application in aquaculture’ from 24th to 28th September 2019. Twenty two trainees representing ten states of the country attended the training. This training programme consisted of both theoretical as well as practical sessions on the Biofloc based culture technology. As part of the training, field visit was arranged to a shrimp Penaeus vannamei and GIFT tilapia fish biofloc nurseries and grow-out rearing facility at Nellore, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu Fisheries University (TNJFU) facilities, Madhavaram, Chennai. Dr. K. K Vijayan, Director, inaugurated the training programme and briefed about the need of propagating Eco-based culture technologies. He emphasized that biofloc technology is an emerging field of aquaculture and popularizing the science behind it is the need of the hour. Dr.C.P. Balasubramanian, Scientist-in-Charge, Crustacean Culture Division, stressed the trainees to understand the science of biofloc technology and to avoid deceptions in the social media hype. Dr. Akshaya Panigrahi, Principal scientist and Coordinator of the training programme explained about the inception of the training programme and introduced the various topics, which will be covered in the training programme. The valedictory session of the training programme was conducted on 28th September 2019. Dr.K.P.Jithendran, Director-in-Charge, ICAR-CIBA, chaired the valedictory session. In the valedictory session, the trainees gave their feedback about the training programme and thereafter certificates were distributed to the trainees. The training programme was coordinated by a group of inter-disciplinary scientists as well as successful entrepreneurs practicing BFT technology with the support of CIBA BFT team.
