Chennai was hot and dry in June 2019.
Over 40 degree Celsius in the shade with water shortages featured in global news reports and a city having to supplement its supplies with long-haul tanker deliveries to keep its population hydrated.
Not an encouraging destination to travel to at this time of year. However, this was not sufficient to discourage some 5000-plus delegates, from across India and around the world, making their way to India’s largest southern city to attend the World Aquaculture Society’s first ‘Asia Pacific Aquaculture 2019,’ in India which featured a combined conference and expo and held at Chennai’s Convention Centre.
It was heartening to see how many delegates had registered for the multitude of conferences on offer and/or to attend the exhibition in an air-conditioned, modern facility which offered refreshments of both coffee and water plus a full buffet lunch on each of the three days.
This was a dynamic and bustling show with a host of local and foreign aquaculture companies looking to do business in a much over-looked yet highly motivated industry. Most international companies had their local representatives on hand to engage with visitors, but as all Indian speak English it attracted the management from some larger international companies who went on to host special events, such as Aker BioMarine holding its annual celebratory dinner during the convention.
International Aquafeed was present on the exhibition floor and had visitors who took away over 1300 copies of the latest June 2019 edition of the magazine plus back issues on display. That was in addition to the conference bags which contained copies of the magazine and distributed to over 3000 attendees pre-registered for the conference.
This was an exceptional meeting by any world standard, and one which offered an extensive poster display covering a wide range of research results carried out by a multitude of in-country universities and organisations plus those from overseas. The event also offered a pre-conference tour of a local hatchery and feedmill.
Government recognition
In 2016, the National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB) had been charged by the Indian Government with assisting the development of aquaculture and fisheries throughout the country.
NFDB’ vision is to develop fisheries and aquaculture “in a big way by adopting new and innovative production technologies” along with improved management and water resource utilisation combined with a proper infrastructure for post-harvest operations and market connections.
Read more, HERE.
The Aquaculturists
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