Asian-Pacific Aquaculture 2019

June 19 - 21, 2019

Chennai Tamil Nadu - India

SEEDING INNOVATION IN AQUACULTURE EDUCATION THROUGH ACADEMIA-INDUSTRY PARTNERSHIP

N.P. Sahu
Central Institute of Fisheries Education, Versova, Mumbai
 

Increasing demand for fish as health food has created a need to produce more fish from the aquaculture sector compared to its capture counterpart. Today, the highest potential for producing food lies in untapped water resources, as land resources are infolding day by day and the production from natural rivers and streams is also constrained due to destruction of breeding grounds and pollution. Though it's a great challenge to provide quality protein to the burgeoning human population of 9 billion by 2050, a technology based aquaculture production system appears to be the best way forward.  A strong research and development wing is the first and foremost requirement for this, which must be supported by a robust academic programme. Though aquaculture and fisheries were introduced as disciplines about six decades ago, education in these areas still needs to acquire the refinement achieved in animal sciences. This is due to the fact that the sector caught the attention of national planners at a much later stage. At present, specializations have been introduced in the two Fisheries Universities, one Deemed University and 29 Fisheries Colleges in the country to introduce cutting edge know-how and skills among the students. Though the number of Fisheries Colleges has significantly increased, attracting talent to the sector, providing quality education, creating job opportunities through academia-industry tie-ups, are some of the major issues that need to be addressed on priority. Industry plays a crucial role in driving the growth of any sector, which is well evident from examples of poultry and dairy sectors in the country and world. Industries aggressively penetrate the market and create demand for the commodities, building gateways for new occupations/ enterprises. However, the industry is itself driven by research and innovation to sustain the demand. Close Academia-industry interaction is need of the hour to seed innovation in new age aquaculture education. This can be achieved through involving industry in curriculum development, sponsoring student research, brainstorming sessions for churning new ideas, etc. Alumni and other industry leaders must be provided platforms and opportunities to share entrepreneurial success stories on a regular basis to change the mind-set of the students and orient and inspire them towards entrepreneurship. Agribusiness Incubation Centre is a new initiative of ICAR to encourage students to establish start-ups and this can be supported with appropriate course curriculum. Although, several of these issues have been highlighted in the past, concrete steps can be discussed at the Symposium.