'Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Kochi'
Abstract
Indian aquaculture has grown at a faster pace of almost 5.5 per cent per year consistently
since last 50 years. In some of the years the growth rate in the aquaculture was recorded as high
as 9 per cent. Indian aquaculture has demonstrated a six and half fold growth over the last two
decades, with fresh water aquaculture contributing over 95 per cent of the total aquaculture
production and more than half of the national fish production. The three Indian major carps,
namely catla (Catla catla), rohu (Labeo rohita) and mrigal (Cirrhinus mrigala) contribute the bulk
of production with over 1.8 million tonnes (FAO, 2003) Average national production from
fresh water ponds has increased from 0.6 tonnes/ha/year in 1974 to 2.9 tonnes/ha/year by
2009–2010 (DAHDF, 2010), with several farmers even demonstrating production levels as
high as 8–12 tonnes/ha/year. For the newly introduced fishes like Pangus the production
recorded was as high as 25 tonnes/ha/yr. At the national level as well as in state level, the
production and productivity has been on the rise over a period of time. Backed by new
policies like Fish Farmers Development Agencies (FFDA), National Fisheries Development
Board (NFDB) and state initiatives, there are enough incentives to increase the productivity of
fish per unit water areas
