Infrastructure
The Headquarters of the Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture located at Kausalyaganga on the Bhubaneswar-Puri highway, about 10 km from the township of Bhubaneswar, has a sprawling campus with an area of 147 ha. It is housed in a four-storied building with 50 laboratory rooms with unique facilities of international standards. The Institute is fully equipped for both basic and applied researches in different aspects of freshwater aquaculture like production technology of carps, catfishes, prawns and molluscs, aquatic environmental management, fish physiology, genetics, nutrition, pathology, aquaculture engineering, economics, statistics and extension. The fish farm with a total water area of about 50 ha comprises about 500 ponds of assorted sizes to serve for different rearing and production phases of fish/shellfish culture. The facilities in the farm include three carp hatcheries with production capacity of 50 millions spawn, a wet laboratory (2 units of 30 x 10 m), hatcheries for catfishes and freshwater prawns, ornamental fish culture facilities, feed mill, facilities for running water fish culture, sewage-fed fish culture, Azolla and algal culture, integrated fish farming, etc. The Institute has a computer centre, radio-isotope laboratory, central instrumentation laboratory and workshop for plasticrafts. Supportive facilities in terms of guest house, trainees’ hostel, health centre, canteen, conference hall, auditorium, staff recreation club, post-office, bank and transport facilities make the place an ideal International Resource Centre for Freshwater Aquaculture.

Continuity of Our Glorious Past
The Institute has had a glorious past, of which one can truly be proud of. The three technologies namely, (i) induced breeding of carps through administration of pituitary gland extract; (ii) nursery and rearing pond management practices; and (iii) composite carp culture, developed at the then Pond Culture Division, Cuttack have virtually revolutionised freshwater aquaculture in the country from a level of backyard activity to that of a fast-growing and well organised industry. Inland fish yield in the country has recorded over ten-fold increase in the last four decades, from 0.22 mmt in 1951 to 2.9 mmt in 2001-2002.

The Institute is currently undertaking both basic and applied research in freshwater aquaculture. The laboratory and field facilities available are unique in the country and thus provide an excellent opportunity for the researchers to conduct studies under controlled conditions as well as the prevalent field conditions. The location of KVK adjacent to the Institute further provides for on-farm research and feed back with regard to different aspects of freshwater aquaculture relating to field problems, technology adoption, etc. Besides the 20 institute-based projects, the Institute is also operating 21 externally funded projects.

Capacity Building & Education
The Institute has operated a UNDP project on Centre of Advance Studies in Freshwater Aquaculture in collaboration with Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology, Bhubaneswar offering course and research programmes for M.F.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees. Since last four years CIFA in collaboration with CIFE, Mumbai is operating the post-graduate programme (M.F.Sc.) in Freshwater Aquaculture to accommodate 5 students every year.

Library and information services
The Institute library possesses over 2500 books and subscribes 28 international journals and 64 Indian journals, besides large number of bulletins, training manuals, reports and other periodicals. Supporting the library, the computer centre of the Institute is also dedicated for the service of the scientists, students and other clientele and also possesses CDs of ASFA, FISH BASE, AGRICOLA, DIALOG ON DISK (AGRI BUSINESS, ERIC, NTIS, MEDLINE). Internet facilities are also available for the researchers.

Training
The Institute and KVK are actively engaged in transfer of developed techniques and technologies of freshwater aquaculture through organisation of short-term training on different aspects. The clientele of such training programmes are developmental workers from State Fisheries Departments, teachers, students, researchers, bank officers, personnel from NGOs, farmers and entrepreneurs. The details of the training programmes conducted during last five years are as follows: