Speaking after inspecting the harvest of Asian seabass fish (called Koduva in Tamil) reared in cages in pond at the demonstration farm of RGCA at Karukkalacherry village in Karaikal district in the Union Territory of Puducherry, Mr. Mohan Kumar said that it was noticed that lack of technology development was the main inhibiting factor for diversification of aquaculture.
Therefore, technology development through adaptive research and development is the need of the hour, he said.
He added that the RGCA had formulated a multi-pronged strategy for speedy development of aquaculture technology on areas where the requirements were urgent. The significant areas where technology development is urgently required are hatchery production of seabass seeds, innovative and adaptive farming technology and an appropriate cost-effective seed.
RGCA has already developed the technology on hatchery production of seed in its hatchery at Thoduvai, a coastal village in Nagapattinam district and millions of seeds are being distributed to farmers in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Goa and Maharashtra.
Mr Kumar is also president of Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Aquaculture (RGCA) under the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry.