New horizons for fisheries research

Abstract

The acute shortage of animal protein in the diet of a vast majority of the people of India has been the major contributing factor for the general nutritional deficiency. Fish constitute an important and plentiful source of such high quality animal protein in our country. The per capita consumption of fish is, however, es'timated at about 2.6 kg/year which is only one-tenth of that in some of the advanced countries. India produces now about 15 lakh tonnes of fish and a luodest target of 20 lakh tonnes annually has been set for the Fourth Five year Plan.