Biofloc farming success likely to boost aquaculture 

The biofloc method of fish farming has garnered a lot of criticism in the past with several farmers complaining of crop failures and financial losses in the past. The criticism continues to persist.

One of the most strident criticisms has been that biofloc technique called for minute attention from the farmers, who also needed to understand the intricacies of looking after a biofloc farm and handling the fish stocks.

However, the recent success of success of a biofloc farm in Cheranalloor panchayat is likely to give a fillip to homestead aquaculture and promote nutritional security, says sources in the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, which backed the experiment.

The successful adoption of the method was done by a self-help group belonging to the Scheduled Caste community in Cheranalloor village near Kochi. The farm, comprising a single tank, had a bumper harvest and the team of scientists from CMFRI is confident that the success can be repeated elsewhere.

Senior scientist K. Madhu, who acted as the lead resource person in the Cheranalloor farm, spoke at the harvest of the fishes at the farm. He said that there has been standardisation of the procedures to help the farmers so that the biofloc method can succeed repeatedly to boost aquaculture.

Dr. Madhu also said that the survival rate had been impressive. M. K. Vinod, who took up biofloc farming with the support of CMFRI said that the system was not as complicated as it was made out to be. He said the biofloc method is suited to integrated farming. He pointed to the banana plants that were being irrigated by wastewater from the biofloc tank and which were flourishing under the care.

Biofloc technology is a method of high-density fish farming in a controlled environment in which fish wastages are converted into useful nutrients.