Third International Symposium On Genomics In Aquaculture By ICAR-CIFA In Odisha Capital

Bhubaneswar: ICAR-Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture in association with the Association of Aquaculturists organised the third International Symposium on Genomics in Aquaculture on January 21-23 at its Kausalyaganga campus. 

The symposium has four themes – Genetics, Breed Improvement and Molecular Breeding, Genome Editing, Biosecurity and Biosafety, Genome Informatics and Intellectual Property Rights and Genomics in Fish Health, Reproduction and Nutrition.

Prof Soumendra Mohan Pattnaik, Vice-Chancellor, Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, who inaugurated the symposium said research in frontier areas like genomics, robotics and bioinformatics holds immense potential all over the country and abroad to meet the national food security. He called for more collaborative work among the researchers to produce useful products/technologies for the benefit of stakeholders in aquaculture.

He added that integrated farming should be adopted in the right way for sustainable environment and more research should be done for the less privileged people of the society. Dr. Victor Martinez, Director, FAVET-INBIOGEN, Chile was the guest of honor. Genomic research in aquaculture is lagging behind as compared to other fields of agriculture and food production, he said. 

Earlier, Dr. BR Pillai, Director, ICAR-CIFA highlighted that genetics research was being done in the institute in relation to better growth and aquaculture production enhancement. She also stated that for these cutting edge technologies, the institute has collaborative research with other ICAR institutes and DBT, DST and many other national and international institutions.