World Aquaculture Magazine - March 2021

WWW.WA S .ORG • WORLD AQUACULTURE • MARCH 2021 55 management of broodstock have significantly affected seed quality. This has stimulated research and development to improve seed production technology. Recent developments in the sector, such as selective breeding and specific pathogen free/resistant seed production are time consuming, cost-ineffective and highly sophisticated and thus are not suitable for direct application by farmers. Further, human- induced climate change and disease outbreaks are also posing severe threat to this sector’s current growth and production. Under such circumstances, production and use of stunted fish seed has the potential to contribute to production increases. Stunted Fish Seed Production Rearing of normal fish seed at high stocking density using sub- optimal feeding levels for 8-12 months produces fish that are small for their age. These stunted seeds are produced by keeping normal seeds at a high stocking density (crowding stress), under restricted feeding regimes (catabolic stress) or under unfavorable culture I n the past few decades, millions of people have depended on fish as their primary protein source. However, recent trends point toward the need for more efficient animal production systems related to the ever-increasing cost of feeds. Among animal-producing sectors, aquaculture is considered to be the most efficient animal protein production system. The demand for animal protein has placed immense pressure on aquaculture due to production stagnation in wild capture fisheries. Presently, aquaculture is producing around 80 million t (FAO 2018) of fish which fulfills about half of the human foodfish requirement. Additionally, aquaculture is the fastest growing animal protein production sector and is the most feed efficient system among them, with a low carbon footprint. Aquaculture has introduced various intensification steps to increase production to meet global fish demand. The growth of aquaculture has been hampered by several issues, including the lack of availability of quality seed in sufficient quantity. Introduction of technological interventions, especially induced breeding, has increased the availability of good-quality seed. However, the implementation of intensification and improper Stunted Fingerlings, the Seeds for Future Aquaculture R. Somu Sunder Lingam, Paramita Banerjee Sawant, N.K Chadha, A.P. Muralidhar, K. Syamala and S. Anand Stunted milkfish seed. ( C O N T I N U E D O N P A G E 5 6 )