Brackishwater aquaculture in India: Status, transition and sustainability

Abstract

Seafood (fish and shellfish from marine and freshwater environment) has been one of the most accessible and nutritious resource for humankind since pre historic time. The human's quest for seafood started as hunting and gathering activity, and subsequently it is transformed to cultivation of aquatic organism. The term aquaculture is sufficiently expressive and inclusive, and it denotes farming of aquatic organism including fish, crustaceans, molluscs and aquatic plants. Aquaculture also implies some sort of intervention during the rearing process to enhance the production. Origin of aquaculture can be traced back to 1000 BC, when Chinese started to raise fishes in ponds and other impoundments (Nasch, 2011). Although prototype of aquaculture has been existing for several thousands of years, the modern aquaculture originated recently. The growth of modern aquaculture, after the second world war, has been spectacular. The total aquaculture production increased from 0.7 million tons in 1950 to 110 million tons (including aquatic plants) in 2018 (FAO, 2020). Aquaculture can be classified into several ways, and one of the frequently used classifications is by the culture environment: Freshwater, brackishwater and marine waters. Brackishwater ecosystem comprising the estuaries, backwater, coastal lakes and adjacent water bodies are the subset of coastal system. It is a transient zone between sea and freshwater ecosystem that provides home for many economically important fish and shell fish resources. Expansion of freshwater aquaculture is constrained due to the finite amount of freshwater and land resources. Further, freshwater aquaculture has to compete with land based terrestrial animal husbandry and agriculture (Boyd et al., 2020) Brackishwater aquaculture is the most vibrant aquaculture sector in India, and it has traditionally been practiced for several decades. It was originally developed as a pond- based capture system, or capture based aquaculture system. This prototype of aquaculture has been transformed into a full-fledged aquaculture in early 90s. This chapter summarizes how brackishwater aquaculture evolved through the past few decades and where we are and way forward.