A delegation of Odisha officials and farmers went to Vietnam and Thailand from April 11 to 18 for an exposure to the two nation’s aquaculture, production and export.
The Export Promotion Cell, Directorate of Fisheries, Odisha mooted the idea. The delegation was led FARD Secretary Bishnupada Sethi. The entire programme in Vietnam and Thailand was co-ordinated by the Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific (NACA), an inter-Governmental organisation under the aegis of FAO, United Nations.
The delegation spent four days each in Vietnam and Thailand and visited Government institutions, interacted with individual farmers, observed supporting facilities along the value chain both in backward and forward linkages like hatcheries, nurseries, farms, processing plants etc.
The delegation also had wide ranging discussions and interactions with organisation/ institutions which support the progress and promotion of aquaculture entities in these countries. It had farmer to farmer interaction, farmers to experts, farmers to societies and farmers to organisations levels on knowledge transfer during the eight day programme.
The progress made by these countries specifically in diversification of candidate species, farming systems, adoption of new technologies to improve farm production and productivity, better management practices, biosecurity protocols, meeting of food safety standards of importing countries, traceability concerns etc., were actually seen and observed by farmer entrepreneurs and Government officials.
The delegation also had interaction with Indian Consulate General (CG) at Ho Chi Minh City. The CG appreciated the various developmental activities of Government of Odisha and the clear objectives of exposure visit. The CG mentioned about the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between Governments of India and Vietnam and suggested to have a workshop on the concept of ‘’Make in India’’ in fisheries sector at Ho Chi Minh City by involving the Government of Odisha for the benefit of both the countries.
Similarly, during the second leg of the programme, an interaction between Dr Cherdsak Virapat, Director-General, NACA and with his team at Bangkok gave an excellent opportunity for the delegation for exploring the possibilities of future co-operation in the field of culture based capture fisheries, addressing the concerns of food safety and traceability and capacity building of the officials for the benefit of fisheries and development of seafood export sector of Odisha.