The Punjab Government would soon sponsor the students keen to undertake four-year Bachelor Degree or three-year Master Degree program in fisheries from China’s leading institute — Freshwater Fisheries Research Center (FFRC) at Wuxi.
The decision was taken by Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal during his meeting with the FFRC director Hu Zhong at Wuxi on Tuesday evening as a part of his official visit to China.Badal also announced that ludhiana’s Guru Angad Dev Veterinary Animal Sciences University (GADVASU) would soon ink a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with FFRC to promote fisheries in the state on the scientific lines in a big way.
Stressing on the need to adopt advanced practices in fisheries, Badal said that this could only be achieved through imbibing scientific temperament amongst fish farmers in the state by students trained from FFRC.Chief Minister announced that fish farmers from Punjab would also be sent in batches for training in fisheries from the FFRC so as to enable them to enhance the fish production.
Badal was apprised by FFRC’s senior faculty that it was China’s premiere institute undertaking extensive research in fresh water fisheries with specialized research in Carps and other fresh water species such as crabs, crawfish, catfish, soft shell turtles, shrimps, among others.
Meanwhile, the delegation of fish farmers and experts led by the Chief Minister visited the experimental fish ponds in FFRC to have first hand account on the rare species of fish.Badal also visited the fish farm in Wuxi spread over 19 hectares where average production was 25 tonnes per hectare as compared to six tonnes per hectare in Punjab.
Fish farm owner Jian Shenzgi, while showing modern practices to the visiting delegation, said that he had computerised system whereby aerators start automatically once the oxygen level in pond drops below required level.He has automatic feed system whereby the feed was disbursed at regular intervals without any human supervision. The feed was different for every species. Also it is different for starter, grower and finisher.