The Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture (CIFA), Bhubaneswar celebrated its 27th annual day at its Kausalyaganga premises on Tuesday.
“Beginning its journey on this day in 1987, this institute has developed several path-breaking technologies in freshwater aquaculture during this period, which have revolutionised the freshwater aquaculture sector in the country,” said CIFA Director Dr P Jayasankar. He said the current level of nine million tonnes (MT) of fish production per annum would be increased to 12 MT by 2020.
India is in the second position, next to China, in terms of fish production. India’s per-hectare productivity is much lower than China, which is leading the world in fish output, Dr Jayasankar said.Underscoring the need of a more aggressive and down-to-earth technology transfer approaches and livelihood development programmes, he appreciated the need and achievements of the Business Planning & Development (BPD) Unit of CIFA in promoting and nurturing entrepreneurship.
He also appreciated the commendable work done by the Krishi Vigyan Kendra of CIFA in partnership with the State Government with due justice to its recently-coined slogan ‘People and Partnership’.The chief guest on the occasion Water Management Director Dr Aswani Kumar presented the CIFA annual awards to CIFA staff and scholarships to their meritorious children. Other eminent persons like Institute of life Sciences Director Dr B Ravindran, Directorate of Research on Women in Agriculture, Director Dr Neelam Grewal and OUAT College of Fisheries Director Dr Damodar Satapathy graced the occasion.