The greatest challenge India faces is to ensure food security of the largely undernourished
protein-starved population, especially in the context of declining land resources available for agriculture
and animal husbandry. Hence fisheries, mainly aquaculture sector, would have to emerge as the savior to
meet increased food demand.Brackishwater farming in India is an age-old traditional system confined
mainly to the bheries (manmade impoundments in coastal wetlands) of West Bengal, similar to gheris in
Odisha, pokkali’ (salt resistant deep water paddy) fields in Kerala, kharlands in Karnataka and
Maharashtra, and khazans in Goa coasts
Carp in freshwater and shrimps in brackishwater form the major areas of
activity in Indian aquacultureScientific farm management in brackishwater sector in India initiated during early during early 1990s