Indian Potash Limited (IPL) is the India’s largest importer of fertilizer and the second-largest buyer of fertilizers in the international market. Founded in 1955, IPL is one of the leading agriculture and infrastructure conglomerates with revenue of more than twenty-five thousand crores in 2020-2021. IPL signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with ICAR-CIBA on 9th Dec 2021 at Chennai for technical support on aquafeed formulation and manufacturing. The MoU was signed in the presence of Dr. T. Ravisankar, Director (In-charge), CIBA, Dr. P.S. Gahlaut, Managing Director, Indian Potash Limited (IPL) and Director of Finance, IPL. Dr. T. Ravisankar highlighted the significance of brackishwater aquaculture, shrimp export and its share to national revenue earnings in comparison with other agriculture exports. He also stressed the importance of feed in presenting aquaculture as an economically viable food-producing sector. He said, CIBA is doing research in all aspects of aquaculture, where our findings have direct applications in the field. Dr. P.S. Gahlaut, Managing Director, IPL highlighted their contributions and significance in countries’ sustainability in agriculture and growth. He added that their main focus is the farmer and set a goal to reach the farmer at their doorstep for serving them. He said that this alliance with ICAR-CIBA comes at the right time and it is the starting of the collaborative program and look forward such collaborations in more areas of aquaculture soon. Dr. K Ambasankar, Principal Scientist and team leader for the feed technology, expressed his happiness for partnering with IPL and briefed about the significance of this MoU and outlined the road map of the technical collaboration. In farmed shrimp production, he said the formulated feed is a major recurring cost, which often ranges from 50 to 60% of the total production cost. It directly determines profitability and sustainability. With CIBA’s focused research on nutrient requirements of shrimp and fish, expertise in scientific feed formulation, and a database on the price and seasonality of locally available ingredients, we do our best IPL develop eco-friendly and cost-effective aqua feeds using advanced indigenous feed processing technology. Dr. P.K. Patil, Principal Scientist and Scientist In-Charge, ITMU explained the genesis this technical collaboration between IPL and ICAR-CIBA and stated ICAR-CIBA has been working shoulder to shoulder with small farmers to big companies like IPL. This MoU signing event was organized and coordinated by Mr. Sitna Abraham, AGM, IPL, with the participation of senior officers from IPL and CIBA.
