Union Minister of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying, George Kurian inaugurated the Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Seaweeds at the Mandapam Regional Centre of ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (ICAR-CMFRI) on January 09, 2025. Government recently designated ICAR-CMFRI Mandapam as the national Centre of Excellence to drive the holistic development and promotion of seaweed cultivation across the country. This initiative is expected to greatly enhance seaweed farming in India, positioning the sector for substantial growth.
Addressing the gathering, Minister Kurian stressed the importance of the CoE in boosting seaweed cultivation and reiterated the pivotal role of ICAR-CMFRI in advancing marine fisheries and mariculture. He also emphasized that this development will significantly contribute to the expansion of the fisheries sector in India.
As part of the event, Kurian inaugurated the Seaweed Plantlet Production Unit at the Mandapam Centre and visited several other facilities, including the Marine Hatchery Complex, National Marine Fish Brood Bank, Recirculatory Aquaculture System (RAS), Sea Cage Farm, and Marine Aquarium, among others.
The Minister engaged in discussions with fishers and fish farmers, where he highlighted the impressive growth in India's fish production over the last decade, increasing from 95.79 lakh tons to 175.45 lakh tons. He also detailed various government initiatives aimed at supporting the sector.
Dr. Grinson George, Director of ICAR-CMFRI, commended the Union Fisheries Department for its continuous efforts to advance the mariculture sector. He shared plans to strengthen collaboration with the ICAR-National Research Centre for Banana in developing seaweed tissue culture programs.
The event was also attended by Dr. R. Selvarajan, Director of NRC Banana, and Dr. Dileep Kumar, Chairman of the Research Advisory Committee (RAC) at ICAR-CMFRI.
Over 150 fishers, fish farmers, and seaweed farmers from Tamil Nadu's Ramanathapuram and Pudukottai districts attended the event.
