Background:
Giant freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii widely known as scampi is one of the most important freshwater prawn species widely cultured in India. It has several attractive attributes as a candidate species viz., fast growth rate, compatibility to grow with fishes such as carps, hardy nature, high market price and has high demand in domestic & export markets. However, unscientific management of broodstock and hatchery as a whole lead to production of poor-quality scampi seeds decreasing productivity and production. Technology Details:
In order to develop a fast-growing strain of scampi through selective breeding, ICAR-CIFA in collaboration with the WorldFish (an international research organization headquartered in Malaysia) has started a systematic selective breeding programme for improving the growth rate of M. rosenbergii in 2007. A base population with wide genetic base to start selective breeding was formed using populations of M. rosenbergii from three geographically distant locations in India (Gujarat, Kerala and Odisha). Selection for harvest body weight was carried out for 11 generations. Now, 11th generation of fast-growing scampi was produced with a selection response ranging from 3 to 7% per generation. The on-farm performance evaluations of this genetically improved scampi in farmers’ fields carried out in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha revealed the superior performance of the new strain in farmers field.