Reiterating that the ‘blue revolution’ in Punjab could transform the farmers’ destiny, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Sunday emphasised the need of strengthening infrastructure in Government fish farms so as to provide high quality fish seed to the fish farmers of the State for achieving this motive. Badal, interacting with the officers or officials during his visit in the Government fish farms at Benra and Sangrur in the evening, said that the SAD-BJP alliance Government was making all out efforts for promoting fish farming in the State.
He said that Punjab had pioneered ‘green revolution’ in the country, which was instrumental in providing food security to the country. “However, with escalating input costs and squeezing margins of profit, agriculture is no longer a profitable venture due to which the farmers of the State are on the brink of economic crisis. In such a dismal scenario, pisciculture is the only ray of hope for the farmers as they could supplement their income through it,” he said.
The Chief Minister further said that in order to encourage fish farming in the state, the Punjab Government has recently constituted Fisheries Board in the state. likewise, he said that special thrust was being laid on imparting training to the fish farmers from reputed institutes both within the country and abroad. “Due to the State Government’s stupendous efforts, Punjab is leading the country in freshwater fish productivity,” he said.
He said that the State Government was aiming to increase this production manifold as there was a lot of scope to enhance this production, so the State Government was wholeheartedly working towards this objective. During his visit in Benra fish farm, the Chief Minister was apprised that the farm was constructed over 20 acres of land and had supplied 35 lakh fish seeds to the farmers last year and this year the production of fish seed was likely to be 55 lakh. In Sangrur fish farm, he was informed that this was the smallest fish farm in the State in terms of area but it produces record yield of fish seeds every year.