RGCA - R & D Centre of MPEDA, Ministry Of Commerce & Industry

of India) N. RAGHAVAN IRS, Chairman MPEDA & President RGCA

Dear friends,
A very warm greeting to all of you! I‘m very excited to start my new innings in a very interesting pitch for me, aquaculture. Let me begin by ensuring with your good wishes and blessings, as I embark on this venture. Captaining a team like Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Aquaculture (RGCA) is a matter of great pride for me on accoun

t of both the quality of work and the contribution made by the organization in the field of diversified aquaculture. Recently, RGCA - the technology incubation centre of MPEDA - celebrated 25th years of journey. The organization has been working continuously to impart scientific knowledge developed through its research & development activities among fishers to promote diversified aquaculture in a sustainable manner through various projects operating all over India. The achievements of the organization are numerous and I shall list out a few. The Seabass Hatchery project has supplied nearly 21.2 million seabass seeds and fingerlings to nearly 2600 entrepreneurs. The mangrove Mud Crab Hatchery project obtained patent for hatchery technology and supplied about 7.2 million crab-instarsand crablets to 650 farmers and researchers. The Aquaculture demonstration farm has standardized the seabass grow-out technology and conducted more than 150 hands-on training programmes on best husbandry practices on seabass and mud crab benefitting nearly 2500 stakeholders. The GIFT project has standardized the hatchery and grow out farming technology of Genetically Improved Farmed Tilapia (GIFT) and supplied nearly 35.7 million all male GIFT seeds and about 24,000 mixed s*x brooder fries to 475 entrepreneurs across the country. The marine finfish hatchery project and open sea cage farming project are coming up well and more than 1.6 lakhs cobia and 4.5 lakhs silver pompano seeds have been supplied to more than 180 farmers till date. The Artemia cyst production and demonstration projects have supplied around 6800 kg artemia biomass and 2415 tins of artemia cysts to 515 entrepreneurs. The domestication of tiger shrimp project has achieved 11th generation of the SPF tiger shrimp family‚s production and multi-species aquaculture complex supplied more than 8 million GIFT seeds; 5.8 lakhs seabass seeds; nearly 10,000 Etroplus seeds; 18,600 Pompano seeds and about 7 million P. monodon seeds to nearly 5000 entrepreneurs mainly from west-coastal region. NABL accredited Central Aquaculture Genetics and Aquaculture Pathology Laboratories are backbone of all RGCA projects and also supporting fish farmers and entreprenuers by providing various diagnostic services. To contain trans-boundary disease, the Aquatic Quarantine Facility has quarantined nearly 2.1 million nos of L. vannamei broodstock to 2800 beneficiaries. The facility also quarantined 9079 nos of P. monodon brooders and more than 1.1 million parental post-larvae of L. vannamei. The extension wing and aquaculture library section of RGCA are supporting farming communities and stake-holders with updated knowledge generated at various RGCA projects. RGCA is also providing consultancy services to private & Government entities and conducting numerous training programmes to ensure exponential increase in quality & quantity of aquaculture produce. Several state governments are tying up with RGCA for initiating new projects in different parts of the country. I request you to go through the pages and get a glimpse of numerous initiatives taken by MPEDA-RGCA. I am sure your suggestions and ideas will enrich our website. On our part, we assure you that the quality of our research work will be maintained and improved in the years to come. Dr. S. Kandan, Director, RGCA

“There's a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore… Fishery is much more than fish”… Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Aquaculture (RGCA) is the R & D arm of MPEDA, and is dedicated to augment the Indian seafood exports through sustainable culture technologies. The organisation which functions as a society under MPEDA, with no profit no loss motto has made breakthroughs not only in culture technologies of Shrimps, but also in diversified species such as Seabass, Cobia, Pompano, Tilapia, Groupers, Mud Crab etc. With the implementation of projects such as the Pilot scale Marine Finfish Hatchery Project at Vizhinjam, Kerala, Grouper project at A & N islands and Seabass hatchery and Mud Crab hatchery projects at Thoduvai, Tamil Nadu, RGCA is fully geared up to change the existing trend of restricted species culture practices, which is prevalent in our country. So far, the coastal aquaculture has been mainly shrimp centric and the export revenue was mainly contributed by the shrimps. But with the applied research pursued by RGCA in culture technologies of diversified species, India can now look forward to expand its export oriented aquaculture base by exporting high valued finfish and shellfish species, apart from the conventional ones.