Country Profile

Undernutrition is one of India’s most serious development challenges, with a particularly high burden of malnutrition among children, as 36% are stunted, and 57% of women are anemic. Small indigenous fish—rich in micronutrients—are often missing from diets in low-income communities. Small-scale fish producers could be part of the solution but face suboptimal production outcomes with limited access to aquatic food production technologies and knowledge. Meanwhile, species diversity is declining due to habitat degradation and overexploitation of inland fisheries, exacerbated by climate change, which continues to threaten aquaculture.

During the 2021-22 financial year, India produced 16.25 million tonnes of fish. The population consumes 6.31 kg of fish per person per year, which is less than half the global average of 20.2 kg

WorldFish’s Support

WorldFish has been working in India since 1996, collaborating with various government departments and the private sector to scale fisheries and aquaculture technology. Since 2016, WorldFish has developed and implemented several projects with local partners to harness aquatic food systems for sustainable development across Odisha, Assam, Bihar, and Andhra Pradesh.

WorldFish collaborates with the state government of Odisha, including the Departments of Fisheries and Animal Resources Development, Mission Shakti, Water Resources, Women and Child Development. The program aims to scale innovative, nutrition-sensitive fishery technologies and integrated approaches to improve regional food and nutrition security. This approach will increase fish consumption among vulnerable populations, particularly women and children, while boosting the income of small and marginal farming communities.

In Assam, WorldFish supports the Assam Agribusiness and Rural Transformation Project (APART) to add value and improve the resilience of select agricultural value chains, prioritizing fish and focusing on smallholder farmers and agro-entrepreneurs in targeted districts.

In Bihar, WorldFish assists the JEEViKA program through MicroSave Consulting India Pvt. Ltd., supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, encouraging women empowerment through fisheries sector interventions, including fish farming in village tanks by women Self Help Groups for economic and nutritional gains.

Key Initiatives

WorldFish is implementing a range of initiatives across Odisha, Assam, Bihar, and Andhra Pradesh to address malnutrition, strengthen small-scale aquaculture, and promote gender equity:

• Scaling nutrition-sensitive aquaculture by integrating small indigenous species like mola into traditional carp-based systems—improving household nutrition in low-income communities. WorldFish pioneered the mass hatchery-based breeding of mola in India, distributing over 10 million hatchlings to farmers and women’s groups in Odisha and Assam.

• Improving food security and livelihoods through collaboration with state governments to enhance aquaculture productivity, support smallholder farmers, and strengthen fish value chains. In Odisha, fish production nearly doubled during six years of partnership.

• Women’s empowerment in aquaculture via large-scale engagement of women’s self-help groups. Nearly 20,000 groups in Odisha have engaged in aquatic food production since 2018. In Bihar, WorldFish supports women-led tank-based fish farming under the JEEViKA program.

• Innovating fish-based school and childcare nutrition by supporting fish meals in the Supplementary Nutrition Programme in Odisha and piloting small dried fish powder in childcare meals in Assam, reaching thousands of children.

• Enhancing climate resilience and reducing loss and waste through the promotion of low-cost solar driers and market connections. A major initiative with Mission Shakti is training 30,000 women in hygienic dried fish production across 3,000 self-help groups.

Fast Facts

• Per capita fish consumption: 8.89 kg per year
• WorldFish is working in Odisha, Assam, Bihar, and Andhra Pradesh to:
  • Enable sustainable intensification of aquaculture.
  • Promote and scale nutrition-sensitive approaches to aquaculture.
  • Secure and enhance the contribution of small-scale fisheries to food security.
  • Improve fish value chains and human nutrition.
  • Develop and promote climate-resilient aquaculture strategies and technologies.
• Promote gender-transformative approaches in aquaculture.
• Odisha’s fish production nearly doubled during the first six years of WorldFish collaboration, from 521,000 tonnes in 2015-16 to 991,000 tonnes in 2021-22.
• Since 2018, nearly 20,000 women’s self-help groups in Odisha have participated in WorldFish activities enabling sustainable, profitable aquatic food production.

Enabling Impact

WorldFish’s advocacy efforts have resulted in policy changes in Odisha and Assam, including the incorporation of nutrient-dense small indigenous fish, such as mola (Amblypharyngodon mola), into traditional carp-based polyculture systems. This paves the way for widespread adoption of nutrition-sensitive aquaculture approaches across both states.

WorldFish scientists successfully mass bred mola, a small indigenous fish species, for the first time in India, standardizing the hatchery-based mass seed production protocol. Over 10 million hatchlings have been distributed to farmers and women’s self-help groups to stock community tanks. In Assam, WorldFish implemented field experiments producing nearly 2.5 million mola seeds.

WorldFish worked with the Women and Child Development Department of Odisha to include fish-based meals in the Supplementary Nutrition Programme, reaching 1,200 children in 50 childcare centers and improving the nutrition of over 100,000 people during 2021. A comprehensive annual action plan for expanding fish-based nutrition in 125 backward blocks of the state over the next five years has been prepared. WorldFish also collaborates with Mission Shakti to build the capacity of women SHGs in coastal fishing villages for the production of dried small fish using solar driers from 2023 to 2028.

In Assam, the Matsya Paripusti project aims to benefit 7,000 children aged 3-6 years by including dried small fish powder in two daily meals across 293 childcare centers during 2023.

Moving Forward

The Government of India’s SCALE committee aims to produce 2.155 million metric tons of tilapia by 2032, up from 70,000 metric tons in 2022. With WorldFish's collaboration, India will invest in GIFT production infrastructure, promoting nutritious and affordable tilapia and providing new business opportunities for youth and women.

In Odisha, WorldFish, the Department of Water Resources, and the Department of Fisheries aim to boost aquaculture productivity and improve climate resilience through innovative technologies and support for smallholder fish producers. Collaboration with Mission Shakti will train 30,000 women from 3,000 self-help groups to produce hygienically dried fish using low-cost solar driers, enhancing quality and marketability.

Partners

• Fisheries and Animal Resources Development Department (FARD), Government of Odisha

• Mission Shakti Department, Government of Odisha

• Water Resources Department, Government of Odisha

• Women and Child Development Department, Government of Odisha

• Assam Rural Infrastructure and Agricultural Services (ARIAS) Society, Government of Assam

• Department of Fisheries, Government of Assam

• MicroSave Consulting India Pvt. Ltd.

• JEEViKA, Bihar Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society, Government of Bihar

• Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)

• ICAR-Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute (CIFRI)

• ICAR-Central Institute of Fisheries Technology (CIFT)

• ICAR-Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture (CIFA)

• Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata (IISER-K)

• Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA)

• MPEDA-Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Aquaculture (RGCA)

• GIZ SAFAL Project, India

• CGIAR centers in India (IRRI, IWMI)

Donors

• Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Government of India

• Fisheries and Animal Resources Development Department, Government of Odisha

• Department of Mission Shakti, Government of Odisha

• Assam Rural Infrastructure and Agricultural Services Society, Government of Assam

• CGIAR Trust Fund

• German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development

• USAID

• MicroSave Consulting India Pvt. Ltd. through Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF)

Contact

Arun Padiyar P., WorldFish India Lead 
International Center for Living Aquatic Resources Management (ICLARM) 
WorldFish India Branch Office, Flat No. 602, 6th Floor, Sethi Bhawan, Rajendra Place, New Delhi, Delhi, India-110008 
+91 9440916428 
worldfish-india@cgiar.org; a.padiyar@cgiar.org

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