Selection for body weight at harvest in giant freshwater prawn (GFP; Macrobrachium rosenbergii) was carried out for nine generations from 2007 to 2018. The breeding program was initiated as a part of the bilateral collaborative project (2007 to 2013) between ICAR-Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture (ICAR-CIFA), in Bhubaneswar, Odisha and WorldFish, in Penang, Malaysia, which subsequently continued as an in-house project at ICAR-CIFA. The base population was established by using a full three by three diallel cross among three geographically distant populations in India. Selection for body weight at harvest was carried out for the first three generations using BLUP (Best Linear Unbiased Prediction) selection methodology. From the fourth generation onwards, within family selection was implemented. Methods for single pair mating, separate rearing of full-sib groups and individual tagging and pedigree recording were developed. Across generations, a total of 431 males were mated in a nested mating design to 543 females to produce 27325 tagged progeny. The average realized response to selection per generation was 7%, resulting in an accumulated response over nine generations of 63%, relative to the base population. On farm testing of the improved strain conducted in Odisha revealed its superior performance. Now, the faster growing strain needs to be disseminated so that the improvement realised in the breeding nucleus is passed on to the farmers. However, rapid expansion of farming of Litopenaeus vannamei in India led the GFP hatcheries to shift production to L. vannamei seed. Presently, very few hatcheries are producing GFP seed. Therefore, the way forward in dissemination of the improved GFP is to identify hatcheries that are still in operation and encourage them to become the multipliers of the improved stock. However, our attempts to do so have not been fruitful. Many hatcheries currently in operation are of the backyard type, and unwilling to take up the task. To reverse the situation strong institutional support and financial incentives need to be provided to the selected hatcheries for undertaking seed production using improved stock. Furthermore, concerted efforts from all stakeholders starting from policy makers, research organizations, developmental agencies, hatchery operators and scampi farmers are needed to develop a sound strategy for the revival of GFP farming.