What Assam Could Teach Australia About European Carp
A successful initiative in Assam, India, is demonstrating what can happen when governments stop viewing an overlooked fish as having little value and begin examining what it can contribute to nutrition, livelihoods and regional development.
The Matsya Paripusti initiative converts small indigenous fish—including Mua, or Indian carplet, and dorikona, or slender rasbora—into a nutritious powder that can be incorporated into hot meals served at childcare centres and primary schools.
The fish are processed whole, machine-dried and ground into powder. Whole-fish processing retains protein, calcium, iron, essential vitamins, omega-3 fatty acids and other micronutrients.
The initiative began in 2023, initially reaching approximately 7,000 children across 293 Anganwadi centres. Media reports state that it achieved an acceptance rate of about 95 per cent. A subsequent six-month intervention covered approximately 3,300 children at 55 Anganwadi centres and 43 lower-primary schools.
According to the reports, baseline, midline and endline assessments recorded improvements in haemoglobin levels, anaemia, nutritional status and growth indicators. WorldFish analysed the findings, which were subsequently submitted to India’s National Fisheries Development Board. The program has now received Assam’s Karmashree Award and is being considered for wider implementation. Times of India, NorthEast Now
These are reported results rather than a substitute for reviewing the underlying scientific evaluation. Nevertheless, the scale, acceptance and apparent nutritional outcomes make the initiative highly worthy of international attention.
The influence of Professor Shakuntala Thilsted
This approach reflects principles advanced over many years by Professor Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted, the 2021 World Food Prize Laureate.
Her work helped demonstrate that small and frequently undervalued fish can make a disproportionately large nutritional contribution—particularly when eaten whole. She has also shown how drying fish can preserve nutrients, extend shelf life and provide a convenient ingredient for meals consumed by women and children.
The lesson is larger than fish powder itself.
It is about recognising that foods dismissed by conventional markets may possess considerable nutritional, social and economic value. It is also about connecting local knowledge with scientific assessment and turning research into practical improvements in people’s lives.
What could this mean for Australia?
Australia has its own profoundly undervalued freshwater fish: European carp.
Carp cause substantial environmental damage throughout the Murray–Darling Basin and other waterways. Considerable attention has been given to the possible release of a carp herpesvirus as a biological-control measure.
The Seafood Consumers Association believes Australia should exhaustively investigate reversible and productive alternatives before relying upon an intervention that, once released into the environment, could not simply be recalled.
Sustained harvesting will not provide a complete answer everywhere, but it may form an important part of an integrated carp-management strategy.
The question should not be only:
How do we kill more carp?
Australia should also ask:
How can safely harvested carp be converted into products that generate nutrition, employment, regional investment and environmental benefit?
Could European carp become fish powder?
Potentially—but the proposition must be tested, not assumed.
European carp are different from the small indigenous fish used in Assam. We cannot automatically transfer the reported nutritional findings from one species, product or country to another.
A properly designed Australian pilot should investigate:
- the nutritional composition of carp flesh and whole-fish fractions;
- the feasibility of producing safe, palatable fish powder;
- protein, fatty acids, vitamins, calcium, iron and other micronutrients;
- contaminant levels associated with different waterways;
- microbiological safety and shelf life;
- allergen management and labelling;
- flavour, odour, texture and consumer acceptance;
- harvesting, chilling and traceability requirements;
- processing costs and commercial viability;
- potential uses in human food, pet food, animal feed, fertiliser, fish oil and other products.
Not every carp will necessarily be suitable for human consumption, and not every part of every fish needs to enter the same market. The objective should be a cascading utilisation model in which the highest-value safe uses are identified first, and remaining material is directed into other productive applications.
From single intervention to regional opportunity
The Seafood Consumers Association has proposed the development of a Freshwater Aquatic Food Centre of Excellence—FAFCoE—to bring together harvesting, food science, nutrition, processing, environmental management, training and commercial development.
Such a centre could evaluate European carp scientifically and independently rather than beginning with the assumption that the fish has no meaningful value.
A pilot could involve:
- nutritional and contaminant analysis;
- prototype fish powders and other foods;
- consumer and chef trials;
- institutional-food applications;
- pet-food and feed development;
- regional processing models;
- cost-benefit and market analysis;
- measurement of carp removed from waterways;
- monitoring of environmental outcomes.
Professor Thilsted’s experience and the work of WorldFish could provide valuable international insight. Assam’s experience offers a starting point—not a ready-made Australian answer.
The larger lesson
Matsya Paripusti demonstrates the importance of seeing value where others have seen only limitation.
A locally available aquatic resource has been connected with school meals, child nutrition, fish farmers, processors and rural entrepreneurs. The result is not simply a new product. It is a food-system intervention.
Australia should apply the same imagination to European carp.
Instead of choosing prematurely between environmental control and productive utilisation, we should investigate how sustained harvesting and value creation could contribute to both.
Before releasing a virus, Australia should properly test whether part of the answer is already swimming in our waterways.
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