New Delhi: Betting big on tilapia fish for doubling the country’s marine exports, the government Thursday called on the industry to set up hatcheries through public-private partnership (PPP) to ensure availability of quality seeds and scale up production.
Even though India is the third largest fish producer in the world, tilapia production is at a nascent stage with annual production of 1 lakh tonnes. Tilapia fish is grown in 145 countries.
Addressing a CII event here, Fisheries Secretary Jatindra Nath Swain said there are resources under the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana to promote production of tilapia fish.
“The scheme is for three years. We will try to see the scheme continues to support this initiative,” he said.
Asserting that quality seeds play a key role in boosting production of tilapia fish, the secretary said the government is ready to support if an industry works out a model to make available the quality seeds to fishermen.
There are hatcheries in shrimp and other fish species but not tilapia fish. No private company is coming forward to set up tilapia hatchery as they are not sure if the seeds produced will be taken up by the market or not, he observed.
He, however, asked the industry if tilapia hatcheries can be set up on a PPP mode.
“The government can give buying support for three years and then withdraw. That will to a large extent protect the investment made by private sector,” he added.
Stressing on the need to diversify marine exports, the secretary said India’s marine exports have primarily centred around shrimp. Export of inland freshwater fish is very miniscule percentage of that basket.
“We have been told to double the marine export in 3-4 years, which is an horrendous task unless we start diversifying our export basket. Probably tilapia fish appears to be one of the best means,” Swain said.
Last fiscal, the country’s marine exports grew 30 per cent in value terms (at Rs 7.76 billion), which was an exceptional year due to the Covid pandemic. But the exports will not reach the same level in the 2022-23 fiscal, he said.
“This (tilapia fish) probably will help. …Apart from positioning tilipia fish as one of the species that can be exported, this can be scaled up faster compared to other species. We will be working on increasing the domestic consumption,” he noted.
Tilapia is one fish species, the secretary said, which is easily growable in extensive and intensive manner, and with low and high input systems. It is very adaptable kind of species.
He said the government is working on increasing domestic consumption of tilapia fish.
Lauding the government for taking steps to promote tilapia fish, World Food Prize laureate and former assistant director general, WorldFish Centre (CGIAR), M Vijay Gupta said tilapia has multiple benefits but India unlike Bangladesh delayed its promotion for long time. Finally, its production was allowed with certain conditions.
He suggested the government to focus first on increasing domestic consumption as people lack awareness and knowledge about this fish species, which is highly nutritious protein source for rural population.
It is critical to establish certified hatcheries for tilapia production in India to reap its benefits, he added.
Dr John Benzie, Lead- Genetics Group and Acting Director of Aquatic Foods Biosciences, World Fish, said: “India possesses a huge opportunity for the production and processing of tilapia and access to global market.”
PTI
