To put the State on the fast track of agriculture diversification, Punjab on Wednesday inked three pacts with China’s Jiangsu province in the fields of agriculture, fisheries and animal husbandry here.
The MoUs were signed by the officials of Ocean and Fisheries Bureau of Jiangusu province, Punjab Government, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) and Guru Angad Dev University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (GADVASU) in the presence of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.
Badal apprised that Punjab produces 1.14 lakh tonnes of fish from capture and culture fisheries. He also informed that it had a huge potential of fresh water fisheries especially in the southern districts of the State which still remained untapped and hoped that these MoUs would certainly help Punjab to script a new chapter to give much needed impetus for State’s ambitious programme of agriculture diversification.
Badal pointed out that strenuous efforts were afoot to bring nearly 1,000 acre of saline and water-logged area under fish farming during the current fiscal and the State Government was already giving 90 per cent subsidy for the development of inland fisheries through construction of ponds.
likewise, the Chief Minister also evinced keen interest to forge technical and academic collaboration in varied fields of agriculture and its allied activities between both the States.
He also sought mutual exchange of technical know-how and expertise between the state’s premier Punjab Agricultural University, ludhiana, and the different institutes of Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences (JAAS) in the area of food crops, industrial crops, horticulture, vegetable crops, agricultural resources and environment, plant production, bio-technology, food safety and monitoring technology, animal sciences and veterinary medicine. Badal said that during his visit to Jiangsu province last year, he was amazed to see the latest technologies and best practices in fresh water fisheries, for which China was known world over. He said that he was highly impressed by the latest innovative and technological advancements adopted by their counterparts in China due to which they were getting a record production to 40 ton fish per hectare as compared to merely six ton per hectare in Punjab.
Chief Minister hoped that these MoUs would act as a catalyst to enhance fish production in the State both qualitatively as well as quantitatively besides supplementing farmers’ income, which was almost stagnant due to negligible margins of profit from the conventional farming.
Amongst three MoUs signed, the first was between PAU and Jiangsu Academy of Agriculture Sciences to have collaboration in the areas of agriculture research particularly for developing cutting edge technologies.
Second was inked between GADVASU and Fresh Water Fisheries Research Centre Wuxi to boost overall development of fisheries sector both on production as well as processing side and the third was between Department of Animal Husbandry, Fisheries and Dairy Development and Jiangsu Provincial Bureau of Agriculture and Fisheries.