Aquaculture of fish species, outside of shrimps

India wants to grow fisheries beyond shrimp farming. MPEDA says "there is enormous scope to grow finfish species, including tilapia in freshwater and cobia and sea bass in seas along the country’s vast coastline".

Opportunity to produce and export Tilapia
"While worldwide tilapia production has increased in countries like India, Thailand, and Indonesia, most of that fish is consumed in the region. The product is produced there, and it stays there,” says US importer. According to it, India can easily export tilapia to the US if it invests in cold chains as fisheries perish rapidly at ambient temps Link. In any case, Indian tilapia production remains vastly underexploited, as it is just 20,000t or a fraction of Bangladeshi production.

World Bank calls on the private sector to help it double pangasius and tilapia production in South Asian countries. WB says these countries have the acreage and it is ready to help if capital is needed. It is noted that real prices of tilapia and pangasius have been falling (see chart) Link.

Intercropping with scrimps and promoting large-scale marine finfish
1. Not a good idea to depend on a monoculture system, esp for shrimps.
2. Diversifying species, culture systems, and geographical distribution will provide resilience in the face of climate change, disease, and market conditions.
3. Thus, the mixed culture of marine finfish with shrimps (ie. both together) is a good option  Link.

4. It also makes ecological and economic sense to grow finfish during the shrimp fallow period.
New research says marine finfish, such as silver pompano, can be stocked in ponds between shrimp crops rather than leaving them fallow. For example, "the majority of upcoming farms in Gujarat are small to medium-sized (0.25 to 5 hectares) and are restricted to a culture period of six to seven months with a maximum of two crop harvests. This leaves shrimp farms fallow for around five to six months. After allowing two months for maintenance (eg for pond drying, plowing, etc), a three to four months fish-rearing window is available. If finfish are grown in this season, it will provide extra incomes, and reduce outbreaks of shrimp-related disease caused by monoculture.

5. Marine finfish culture has great investment potential but its large-scale development has not started Link
R&D agencies, ICAR & CMFRI have demonstrated excellent results from cage farming in a marine setting. In this case, around 2500 fingerlings (of 20-25mg) were reared in HDPE marine cages of 6m diameter x 3.5m depth. After a few months of culture, including intense high-protein feeding, the fishes (eg. Indian pompano) were ready for harvest and a 90% survival rate was achieved. Caged mariculture is well-established but only emerging in India. The frontline demonstrations hope to encourage the adoption of mariculture in a very big way. “Our research has been successful in developing breeding and seed production technologies. This will bring forth high-quality seeds of valuable finfishes to the market and seriously raise overall fish production through marine aquaculture. At present, quality seeds are available all-year-round for cobia, Indian and silver pompano, and grouper, in CMFRI hatcheries at multiple locations."

6. Brackish water cage aquaculture has potential  Link
Maharashtra is building a 2 m/pa sea bass larvae hatchery and taking technology support from Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture (CIBA) to boost farmed fish production. The mangrove forests on its 720-km coastline offer good potential for brackishwater finfish farming and sea bass, in particular, is in high demand. Self-help groups have already undertaken cage farming, though only with 32 units. "Mangrove Foundation is going to double the number in the next cycle," says CIBA director and that, "the partnership with Maharashtra government is a good model for replicating in other coastal states."

What is giving impetus to Pangasius production?
Bihar has some of the best conditions on earth for aquaculture, and Gangetic plains are ideal for pangasius farming. Other northern Indian states are also favourable. Bihari fishing cooperative believes pangasius can take off in a very big way because "it has the best income-generating potential and is the cheapest source of protein". Pangasius grows fully (to 800g) in 140days from fingerling size vs 2yrs for carp grown with traditional methods. It survives diseases better than other fish.

Andhra Pradesh is the least-cost producer and dominates all emerging states. It is said that shrimp farmers switch to pangasius when shrimp sales are sluggish. However, btw 2017 and 2018, its share has fallen from 80% to 60% of domestic production. So, while AP focuses on shrimps, pangasius farming is taking off in northern states like Bihar, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal. One constraint for emerging farmers in the North is the lack of large, professional players in the fingerling business. Another is lesser market acceptance for pangasius compared with carp and other catfish. This is because pangasius is sold into domestic wet channels (ie. sold without processing), but the whole fish is too large for a small Indian family to eat, without a refrigerator to preserve unused portions Link.

India's pangasius production will increase by 8% from 2018 to 2020, according to GOAL, while Vietnam, with 90% of global sales, is fairly static at 3% over this period. Vietnam produces 1.28mt whereas other countries mostly produce for domestic markets, with 590,000t from India, 524,000t from Bangladesh and 485,000t from Indonesia. Thus, there is an opportunity to export pangasius should domestic production grow significantly, and Andhra Pradesh has the industry linkages to best exploit it.