Experts spoke at the panel of the Indo-UK joint workshop, zooming in on the need to improve production to meet the increasing seafood demand. The health of the entire value chain of the aquatic food sector is crucial and needs to be taken care of.
The workshop was jointly organized by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), the ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI), and the UK government's Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS). Around 50 scientists from India and the UK attended the meeting.
Facilitating research and partnership is crucial to create a beneficial and sustainable chain of aquaculture business. They also called for an Indo-UK partnership to improve the research of the same.
This would have a snowballing effect- at first reducing the negative impacts from unsustainable activities and thereafter going on to improve the livelihoods, environments, and economies of the country.
A higher level UK-India One Health partnership is in the works to integrate aquatic food, in line with the emerging realities and concerns at a global level, according to Sally Taylor of The British High Commission.
It also spoke of introducing innovative concepts like block-chain enabled tracking of fish production from farm to table in order to improve the quality of the produce.
The National Surveillance Program for Aquatic Animal Diseases (NSPAAD), the Indian Network for Fisheries and Animal Antimicrobial Resistance (INFAAR), the All-India Network Project on Fish Health, and the Consortia Research Platform on Vaccine and Diagnostics are some of the mechanisms that steer Indian aquaculture towards the One Health paradigm, according to CMFRI Director A Gopalakrishnan.
He also emphasized the importance of creating a national-level agency to act as a point of adherence for all such varied approaches and efforts.
C Ramachandran, Principal Scientist of the CMFRI, spoke about the increase in the disease risks in aquaculture. He said that it was extremely crucial to appoint aqua doctors who could regulate the abuse of antibiotics in aquaculture.
Under the one-health perspective, he remarked, "Collaborative R&D activities are essential for the revival and market integration of traditional fish farming methods such as pokkali farming."
