It was nearly a Jharkhand show in fisheries at World Fisheries Day event in New Delhi on Tuesday with Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Radha Mohan Singh asking states to replicate many of the Jharkhand models to increase production in fisheries and increase farmers’ income.
Though Jharkhand stands at the eighth position in terms of fish production among states in country as on September 2017, Singh appreciated Jharkhand’s ‘Cage’ model of fish production which has seen the State getting its fisheries production increasing manifold and taking total production up to 1.07 lakh tonnes by September 2017 end against total requirement of State around 2 lakh tonnes a year. The Minister visited Jharkhand Stall in the event and appreciated farmers for what they were doing in fisheries in State.
“We are not the largest fish producer State in country yet. But the efforts we have made since at least in last two years is unprecedented and we are sure of being self-dependent by next year under Blue Revolution Programme. It is not ordinary listening from Union Minister saying others states to replicate some of the Jharkhand models including our Cage model of production, our training models and rehabilitation of farmers when their land is acquired for some project,” said State Fisheries Training Centre (Dhurva) In-Charge Pradeep Singh who led a team of 55 fish farmers and officials to New Delhi for the event organised on Tuesday.
Joint Director (Fisheries) Manoj Kumar presented activities of the department before the States and said that Jharkhand was on the verge of becoming self dependent in fisheries production.
He added that the vision presented by the department to Union Ministry of providing similar area of waterland to those fish farmers whose land plots were acquired for some development projects had become a benchmark model for rehabilitation of fish farmers in country.
Meanwhile, Singh said on the occasion at the National Agricultural Science Center (NASC) complex in New Delhi that the scheme 'Blue Revolution' has been launched with the outlay of `300 Crores for the integrated development of the Fisheries sector in the country. “As a result, overall fish production has registered an increase of about 18.86 per cent in comparison to the last three years, whereas inland fish production has registered a growth of more than 26 per cent. Combining the production of all types of fisheries (capture and culture), the total fish production in the country has reached at about 11.41 million tonnes in 2016-17,” Singh said.
Singh further said that about 1.5 crore people in the country are employed in the fisheries sector for their livelihood. He emphasized that the vast aquatic resources present in the country provide more opportunities and potential for further development in fisheries sector.
He said that main aim of Blue Revolution Scheme is to increase the fish production and productivity to up to 8 per cent annual growth rate and to produce 15 million tonnes of fish by 2020.
Director (Fisheries) Rajeev Kumar who is on training till December 15 expressed satisfaction over State’s programmes being appreciated at national level. “We have worked day in and day out in fisheries and upliftment of farmers and its pleasant to get appreciated,” added Kumar.