As part of India’s species diversification drive, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)’s Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture, Chennai, has successfully bred the grey mullet Mugil cephalus (locally known as madavai), a high-valued commercial brackishwater fish for the first time in India. The project was initiated in line with the Government of India’s vision for increasing the fish production under the Blue Revolution Mission. The Institute launched the breeding technology during the “Stakeholders’ Meet†organised at the Muttukadu Experimental Station, Chennai on 28 January 2021.
In his address, Dr Joykrushna Jena, Deputy Director General (Fisheries Science), ICAR applauded the Institute’s achievement towards species diversification to increase the fish production in the enormous stretch of underutilised brackishwater resource in the country. Jena complemented the team of scientists from the Fish Culture Division and ICAR-CIBA in the unique achievement that is a landmark in the Indian Brackishwater Aquaculture.
Dr K.K. Vijayan, Director, ICAR-CIBA, Chennai highlighted the fish’s versatility that it can be farmed in diverse farming systems like monoculture, polyculture and integrated multitrophic aquaculture mode (IMTA) with a potential output of 4 tonnes/ha/ crop with high profitability. The successful breeding and larval production were achieved using the pond reared broodstock in 2016-17. Vijayan emphasised that during this season by December-January, the Institute has completed producing its third batch of hatchery-reared grey mullet fingerlings.
The Director outlined the releasing of the indigenous species-specific functional pelleted feeds for the broodstock (Cephalus BroodPlus) and nursery (Cephalus NurseryPlus) developed by the Nutrition Division of the Institute.
The first batch of hatchery-produced grey mullet seedstock and species-specific feeds for this fish were distributed to farmers in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. 
