Genetically Improved Farmed Tilapia (GIFT)

Genetically Improved Farmed Tilapia (GIFT)

Benefits for the developing world

Faster-growing, hardier and more disease-resistant fish have numerous benefits for smallscale farmers and resource-poor consumers. They allow farmers a greater return on their investment, and in some countries genetically improved tilapia has increased the national production rate of tilapia and led to lower prices for consumers.

The success of GIFT and GIFT technologies

A study by the Asian Development Bank found that in 2003, GIFT and GIFT-derived strains accounted for 68% of tilapia production in the Philippines, 46% in Thailand and 17% in Vietnam.

 In 2010, a sample survey in Bangladesh found that 75% of mono-sex tilapia hatcheries exclusively used GIFT as their brood stock.

 The selective breeding methodology developed through the GIFT project, known as“GIFT technology,”has also been successfully applied to Nile tilapia and other tilapia species in Egypt, Ghana and Malawi, as well as to other fish species, including carp. 

In Egypt, the second-largest tilapia-producing country in the world, the Abbassa strain of Nile tilapia developed by WorldFish grows up to 28% faster than the most commonly used commercial breed in the country. The improved strain was disseminated to Egyptian hatcheries in 2012 and is expected to have significant economic benefits for the country’s booming aquaculture industry