Central Institute of Fisheries Education Mumbai, Maharashtra

Central Institute of Fisheries Education Admission 2023

The Central Institute of Fisheries Education (CIFE) was established by the Government of India, with the assistance of FAO/UNDP on 6th June 1961. The main purpose of its establishment was to impart post-graduate education and training largely to the inservice fisheries personnel of the country to support fisheries developmental activities. The CIFE started functioning at the Institute of Science Building in Bombay (Mumbai, now) and initially the academic activities were organized in three divisions viz. Fishery Biology, Fishery Technology and Fishery Economics for conducting a two-year postgraduate course of Diploma in Fisheries Science (D.F.Sc.). The Institute was shifted to a rented building at Masjid Bunder, Bombay in 1964. The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, at this stage, actively collaborated with the Govt. of India and helped in strengthening infrastructural facilities at CIFE by providing sophisticated equipments together with expertise of high standard. The fishing vessel, MFV Harpodon received under FAO/UNDP assistance in 1968 provided basic facilities for on-board training in the areas such as marine fishing, fishery biology and oceanography. The Institute headquarters moved to its own building at Versova in March 1967 and acquired its first centre, the Inland Fisheries Training Centre, Barrackpore in West Bengal from Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute (CIFRI) in October 1967. The Institute also took control of the erstwhile Fisheries Extension Centres of the Govt. of India and organized them as sub-centres for Inland Fisheries Operatives Training at Agra and Hyderabad. These centres were subsequently shifted to Chinhat near Lucknow (UP) and Kakinada (AP).

The infrastructural needs in terms of aqua farms were greatly fulfilled by the transfer of Brackishwater Fish Farm at Kakinada in September 1968 and the Freshwater Fish Farm at Balabhadrapuram in 1973 from the Govt. of Andhra Pradesh. In 1967, the University of Bombay accorded recognition to CIFE as a study centre for M.Sc. and Ph.D. programmes by research in the fields of Applied Zoology and Biochemistry. Several other institutions such as IIT, Mumbai, IIT, Kharagpur and Mangalore University also recognized CIFE as a study centre for Ph.D. programmes.