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Agricultural and food biotechnology

Biotechnology on the farm and in the fish pond: genetically modified and genome edited crops and their regulation, crop and animal genomes, breeding technologies, fish farming systems and food grown from cells. Prelims has asked how genome sequencing can be used in Indian agriculture and about biofilters in recirculating aquaculture.

Showing 2 of 4 subjects, those that changed from 1 to 15 September 2026.Show all

Aquaculture

Recirculatory aquaculture and biofloc

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Prelims

Fish waste turns to ammonia, and ammonia is what limits how many fish a tank can hold. Take it out of the water and the same water will carry a far heavier stock.

  • The biofilter of a Recirculatory Aquaculture System (RAS) converts the ammonia in fish waste first into nitrite and then into nitrate.
  • That is what lets the system reuse 90 to 95 per cent of its water and stock its tanks intensively all year.

What changed

  1. 7 Sep 2026

    PIB, 7 Sep 2026: Next-Gen Aquaculture in India: Harnessing RAS and Bio-floc Technology in the Blue Economy for the Atmanirbhar Bharat and Viksit Bharat Vision (opens in a new tab)

  2. 7 Sep 2026

    • Biofloc technology, or heterotrophic pond farming, grows beneficial microbes in the pond water, which clump together and clean it.
    • Those clumps are eaten by the fish, so the pond grows part of its own feed.
    • Because the water is cleaned where it stands, little or none of it is exchanged.

    PIB, 7 Sep 2026: Next-Gen Aquaculture in India: Harnessing RAS and Bio-floc Technology in the Blue Economy for the Atmanirbhar Bharat and Viksit Bharat Vision (opens in a new tab)

UPSC has asked

  • Prelims 2023: biofilters in Recirculating Aquaculture Systems

Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana

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Prelims

Both systems are built with money from the same scheme. Six years of it are the backdrop to a harvest that has more than doubled since 2013-14.

  • The Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY), launched in 2020 on the base of the earlier Blue Revolution scheme, supports both recirculating and biofloc units.
  • Fish production reached a record 197.75 lakh tonnes in 2024-25.
  • India is second in world fish production, at about 8 per cent of global output, and first in shrimp production and exports.

What changed

  1. 10 Sep 2026

    PIB, 10 Sep 2026: Fueling the Blue Economy: Six Years of Empowering India's Fisheries Sector under PMMSY (opens in a new tab)

  2. 7 Sep 2026

    PIB, 7 Sep 2026: Next-Gen Aquaculture in India: Harnessing RAS and Bio-floc Technology in the Blue Economy for the Atmanirbhar Bharat and Viksit Bharat Vision (opens in a new tab)

Also filed elsewhere

  • Mutation breeding · on Fusion, radiation applications and nuclear governance

    Mutation breeding exposes seeds to radiation to create changes within the crop's own genome, and the breeder then selects the plants worth keeping.