WWW.WAS.ORG • WORLD AQUACULTURE • SEPTEMBER 2023 57 • In India’s aquaculture industry, words like “double current production” and “high annual growth rate” are keys for future expansion of cage culture. Constraints facing the expansion of freshwater cage culture include: • Poorly placed cages may alter current flows and worsen sedimentation. • Improper management of cage culture activities may pollute the environment with uneaten feed and fish faecal waste, causing eutrophication. • The dependency on complete and balanced commercial feed may reduce profitability of cage culture. • Regular sampling may cause stress to the fish and lead to secondary infections requiring medications that are difficult or impossible to obtain. • Human errors: Poor cage construction, poor quality of seed, high stocking densities, poor quality of feed, improper feeding methods, insufficient monitoring of fish health, poor fish handling techniques, inadequate site selection criteria and lack of cage maintenance can all be considered as human errors that are likely to occur. Conclusions Cage culture in open freshwater systems is an effective technology practiced throughout the world. The demand for inland fish production is placing greater pressure over reservoir fishery resources. It has been projected that reservoirs in India can produce much more fish than current harvest levels. To boost reservoir production, governments have introduced more policies and initiatives for supporting the local people. State and central governments have announced many financial assistance and subsidy programs to support cage culture activities more effectively and improve the social status and livelihoods of rural communities. In addition to this, large-scale intervention in cage culture technology through public-private partnerships can further boost fish production and help attain the expected production potential of nearly 1 million tons from these reservoirs. Notes Rameshwar Venkatrao Bhosle*, Stephen Sampath Kumar and Somu Sunder Lingam. * Corresponding author: bhosleramu330@gmail.com Cages installed at Waki Reservoir (Maharashtra) Feeding in cages
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjExNDY=