Perspective on coastal aquaculture in India

The slow growth rate in marine capture fisheries of the coastal \nsector world over, capital intensive and risk prone deep sea \nand oceanic harvest coupled with great demand for target \ngroups for domestic and export markets have created a pressing \nnecessity to evolve viable options for aquaculture of most \nwanted species. Although the aquaculture is rapidly growing \nin the Asia-Pacific region, its techno-economic and commercial \nviability in Indian condition is yet to be demonstrated and \npracticed except in the case of some shrimps and bivalves. \nEvenlhough the country is blessed with vast cultivable coastal \nand brackish water areas and with rich potentially cultivable \ncandidate species for farming (20 species of finfishes, 29 \ncrustaceans, 1 7 molluscs, 7 seaweeds and many other species \nof anciUiary resources), we have yet to go a long way to achieve \nour targets in aquaculture. The paper reviews the R&D works \ncarried out by CMFRI for crustacean, molluscan, finfish \nmariculture, seaweed culture and their developmental \nprogrammes required to be undertaken in the future.