On 25 September, AquaPolis, the Marine Aquaculture Centre (Singapore Food Agency) and the Aquaculture Innovation Centre (Temasek Polytechnic) convened a focused Tilapia Farmers Workshop as a fringe event of the AquaTropics Forum. We welcomed around a dozen farms for a full day of knowledge sharing and hands-on training led by guest trainer, Dr Ram Bhujel, Research Associate Professor and Director of Aqua-Centre at the Asian Institute of Technology. Dr Bhujel is an internationally recognised expert in tilapia hatchery production and grow-out farming, and the workshop was designed to translate proven techniques into farm-ready practice.
The programme blended theory and practice across the production cycle—covering broodstock management, grow-out strategies, fish health, and feed management. Practical sessions included feed preparation for sex reversal, gonad squash for sexing and fish dissection for basic disease diagnosis, enabling participants to connect concepts with skills they can deploy immediately on site.
Feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Farmers highlighted how directly applicable the content was to their operations, noting clearer decision-making frameworks for broodstock selection, more targeted feeding approaches, and improved confidence in basic health assessments.
As AquaTropics continues to grow, we aim to run more fringe events alongside the main Forum and expand practice-oriented workshops throughout the year. Our focus remains on helping farmers upskill, strengthening knowledge transfer, and bringing science closer to farm application—accelerating translation from research to industry impact.
