Sustainable Inland Saline Aquaculture: Opportunities, Challenges and Future Prospects

Inland salinisation is a major challenge to agricultural productivity and freshwater availability, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions. At the same time, saline groundwater and salt-affected land represent potentially valuable resources for alternative food production. Inland saline aquaculture provides an opportunity to convert degraded land and poor-quality saline water into productive aquaculture systems. Successful development, however, depends on appropriate species selection, detailed water-quality assessment, ionic balancing, gradual acclimation, efficient feeding and careful environmental management. India has considerable potential for inland saline aquaculture because of its extensive salt-affected areas and saline groundwater resources. Research has demonstrated the potential of several marine, brackishwater and selected freshwater species in these environments (Varghese et al., 2023; Jahan et al., 2025). Future development should focus on low-salinity-tolerant freshwater species, improved mineral management, water recycling, integrated aquaculture-agriculture systems and environmentally safe production technologies. With appropriate site-specific management, inland saline aquaculture can contribute to the productive utilisation of marginal resources while supporting sustainable aquatic food production.

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