CMFRI Support To Maha Tribal Farmers

Kochi: In a major development, the ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) here, has successfully produced and transported around one lakh attached oyster spats to Maharashtra, paving the way for tribal coastal communities to engage in profitable oyster farming.

This initiative, in association with the Mangrove & Marine Biodiversity Conservation Foundation of Maharashtra, aimed to empower tribal self-help groups with high-yield, eco-friendly oyster farming, leveraging hatchery-reared seeds to boost livelihoods while conserving natural ecosys-tems.

Oyster farming is a significant global industry, valued at more than $7 billion, with increasing demand in markets such as the US, Europe, and Asia.

Oysters are highly sought after for their nutritional benefits, including high protein content, es-sential minerals, and omega-3 fatty acids.

In the first step, millions of D-shaped larvae of Indian backwater oyster (Crassostrea madrasen-sis) were reared at the hatchery of Vizhinjam Regional Centre of CMFRI located in the state cap-ital city using the broodstock collected from Kerala’s Ashtamudi Lake.

Later, the scientists further reared these larvae to develop into spats ready for settlement in oyster shell rens, as the production of the attached spat is a crucial step in oyster farming.