Aquaculture development in India from a global perspective

While Asia's share in 1996 global aquaculture production of fish and shelfi sh (26.38 million mt as estimated by FAG) was maximal (91%), those of Europ e (4.7%) and North America (1.8%) were low. Intriguingly, the relative incr eases (%) in production over the decade in both the developed continents ha ve decreased. Among the top ten producer countries, China accounted for 67% of total world production, followed by India (7%), Japan (3%), Indonesia ( 2.5%), Thailand (1.9%), USA and Bangladesh (1.5%), Korea (RoK) (1.4%), phil ippines (1.3%) and Norway (1.2%). While India has increased its farmed fres hwater fish production and shrimps very impressively, utilization of marine aquatic resources (except for shrimps), spread over an expansive EEZ of tw o million km, is poor. India has little production of farmed marine fishes, molluscs and seaweeds, in which even smaller Asian countries excel. An ind ex of Biodiversty Utilization for Aquaculture (BUA), calculated for India i s quite low (0.13), when compared to the highest (0.51) for Taiwan and RoK, India can gain much by diversification of aquaculture, recruiting more spe cies from her rich aquatic fauna and flora and also by developing eco-frien dly and sustainable aquaculture systems by sharing of experience and techno logy with our Asian neighbours through cooperative efforts.