India’s national institute for farming fish and shrimp in salty coastal water has its head office on Santhome High Road in Raja Annamalaipuram. The Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture (ICAR-CIBA) was set up by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research on 1 April 1987 and is described on its official website as the nodal agency for developing brackishwater aquaculture in the country.
Brackishwater is the mix of sea and river water found in estuaries, backwaters and coastal ponds. That is where most of India’s farmed shrimp is grown, and shrimp is one of the country’s biggest food exports. CIBA’s job is to make that farming more productive, less disease-prone and less dependent on imported species.
Where CIBA works
CIBA’s Annual Report 2023 gives the headquarters address as 75 Santhome High Road, MRC Nagar, RA Puram, Chennai 600028, and names Dr Kuldeep K. Lal as director. The institute has two regional centres outside Tamil Nadu, at Kakdwip in West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas and at Navsari in Gujarat.
Much of the hands-on work near Chennai happens at the Muttukadu Experimental Station, about 30 km south of the city on the East Coast Road side, close to the Muttukadu backwaters. Ponds, hatcheries and tanks there are used for breeding trials and farm-scale experiments that cannot be done in a city office.
Why shrimp research matters to the economy
The stakes are large. CIBA’s 2023 annual report notes that India’s exports of fish and fish products touched a record USD 8.09 billion in 2022-23, and that shrimp alone made up USD 5.48 billion of that. Tamil Nadu and neighbouring Andhra Pradesh are among the main shrimp-farming states, so a disease outbreak in coastal ponds in Thiruvallur or Nagapattinam can hit farm incomes, hatcheries, feed suppliers and processing units together. That is why much of CIBA’s lab time goes into early detection of shrimp diseases and better pond management rather than headline breakthroughs.
The Indian white shrimp project
Most shrimp farmed in India today is Penaeus vannamei, a species originally from the Pacific coast of the Americas. CIBA has been pushing a native alternative, the Indian white shrimp, Penaeus indicus.
According to an ICAR release on the work, CIBA scientists sequenced and assembled the whole genome of P. indicus in-house. The assembly is 1.93 billion base pairs long and contains 28,720 protein-coding genes. ICAR said it was the only crustacean genome, and one of nine invertebrate genomes, to meet a demanding reference-quality standard. The same release noted that India produced about 11% of the world’s shrimp in 2020, some 7.6 lakh tonnes worth about USD 4 billion, and argued that a well-characterised native species could cut reliance on exotic stock.
The genome feeds a Genetic Improvement Programme of Penaeus indicus. In a field demonstration harvested on 14 December 2023 at Kandagali village in Kerala’s Kannur district, ICAR reported that shrimp stocked at 30 post-larvae per square metre reached 18.5 g in 93 days with about 90% survival. Farmers at the harvest said the stock resisted white faecal disease better.
Disease, feeds and farmer support in Tamil Nadu
The annual report shows how close to home some of this work is. Figures from that report:
| CIBA activity (Annual Report 2023) | Figure |
|---|---|
| Vannamei farms surveyed, Thiruvallur district | 30 farms, 71 samples |
| Farms infected with EHP (a microsporidian parasite) | About 36% |
| Farms with IMNV / WSSV viruses | About 8% / 5% |
| Milkfish fry given to farmers (Kerala, TN, West Bengal) | 17,526 |
| Shrimp crop insurance policies (mainly TN and AP) | 650 |
| Revenue from consultancy and technology transfer | About Rs 72.92 lakh |
The same report records pilot trials of a CIBA treatment for EHP at farms in Nagapattinam and Tiruvallur, and seaweed surveys along the Chengalpattu coast between November 2022 and November 2023. The report also names farm products developed at the institute, including Horti Plus, CIBAfloc and Copefloc, and records that about 1 lakh seeds went to farmers and 16 lakh fertilised eggs to private hatcheries during the year.
For farmers, students and entrepreneurs
CIBA’s main public-facing work is training and technology transfer. Coastal farmers, hatchery operators and entrepreneurs attend short courses on hatchery management, disease diagnosis and newer species such as milkfish. Companies can license CIBA products and technologies through formal agreements; the 2023 report lists consultancy, collaborative research and technology-transfer agreements as income sources.
More than 800 shrimp farmers attended two farmers’ conclaves run by the Navsari centre that year, according to the report. The institute is also a research base for postgraduate and PhD students in fisheries and life sciences. Openings, training calendars and tenders are posted on the official website.
Quick answers
Where is ICAR-CIBA’s office in Chennai?
At 75 Santhome High Road, MRC Nagar, RA Puram, Chennai 600028. Its experimental station is at Muttukadu, about 30 km south.
What does CIBA stand for?
Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture, an ICAR institute under the Union agriculture ministry, set up on 1 April 1987.
Why is CIBA promoting Indian white shrimp?
To reduce dependence on the imported vannamei species. It has sequenced the P. indicus genome and runs a genetic improvement programme for it.
Information checked against official sources on 18 October 2026. Fees, dates and rules can change; confirm on the linked official pages before acting.
