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The Minister of State for Agriculture, Dr. Akhilesh Prasad Singh informed, in reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today that, the Indian Scientist Modadugu V. Gupta has been awarded the 2005 World Food Prize for his work to enhance nutrition for over 1 million people through the expansion of aquaculture and fish farming in South and Southeast Asia. Through his “dedicated sustained efforts in Bangladesh, Laos and other countries in Southeast Asia”, Dr. Gupta has been selected as the 2005 World Food laureate for developing small scale aquaculture as a viable means for over one million very poor farmers and women to improve their family’s nutrition and wellbeing’. Dr. Gupta developed unique method of fish farming, requiring little cost while causing no environmental damage. As a result, freshwater fish production has risen dramatically in these countries by as much as three to five times. Dr. Gupta is the sixth citizen of India to receive the prize.
The technology had also been developed in India during the 70s under the All India Coordinated Research Project on Composite Fish Culture by ICAR. The above research projects operated in a number of States in the country in coordination with the State governments. The above technology has been adopted in the country under ongoing programme of Development of Freshwater Aquaculture being implemented in the States through Fish Farmers Development Agencies (FFDAs). As a result, the average pond productivity in fish farming has risen from 0.5 tonnes/ha in the early 1970s to 2.3 tonnes/ha/year at present. With adoption of the above technology, inland fish production in the country has increased from 9.87 lakh tonnes in 1983-84 to 34.57 lakh tonnes in 2003-04.
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