Better management practices have proved to be a highly effective tool for the Indian shrimp farming industry. Work to extend adoption of the practices is ongoing and in this view a national workshop was held in Chennai, 16-18 May 2011 at the Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture to discuss scaling up strategies, to extend the concept to new areas and to involve more farmers and identify lessons learned that can be applied elsewhere. The aims of the workshop were to:

• Build awareness and capacity of relevant stakeholders on BMPs, cluster management, standards and certification, cluster/group certification, internal control systems and market access issues.
• To share lessons from BMP and cluster management projects in India, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia.
• To perform a thorough assessment of the impact of shrimp BMP and cluster management programs in India, including technical, social, economic and environmental concerns.
• To identify factors for success and constraints to adoption.
• To identify opportunities and challenges for scaling up.
• To provide projections on the impact of scaling up at the national level.
• To develop scaling up strategies for use by national institutions, regional organisations and potential donors.

The workshop was an activity of the ASEM Aquaculture Platform, funded by the European Commission's 7th Framework Programme.