Now Chhattisgarh has 94 per cent of the total area measuring 1.63 lakh hectares available in the State exclusively for fish production in the State, officials stated. More than two lakh fishermen have provided employment opportunities through development of Fisheries in the State.
Moreover, several schemes have also been started to promote Fisheries. The State has become self reliant in supply of fish seeds. In year 2013-14, fish seeds worth 1.22 crores were produced, officials stated.
The State Government has also constituted the Fishermen Welfare Board and the first Fishery University has been established at Kawardha in Kabeerdham district.
Moreover, the Fisheries Department has developed as many as 28 ‘Chinese style hatcheries’ to provide a major push to fish production in the State. The Chinese hatchery system is considered to be most suitable for the production of quality fish seeds, they stated.
Apart from the Chinese style hatcheries owned by the Fisheries Department, the State Co-operative Fisheries Federation has nine and the private fish seeds production units have 25 Chinese style hatcheries for fish seeds production, officials informed.
In all, the State has 62 Chinese style hatcheries, 57 fish seeds production farm and as many as 721 reservoirs for fish seeds production. Fisheries Department officials here stated that the State needs 96.92 crore standard fry seeds for fish farming in all water reservoirs, while it successfully recorded production of 119 crore standard fry fish seeds during 2013–14.
Besides, the Department has 35 fish seeds farm, the Federation has one and the private producers have 21 seeds farms.Similarly, the Department has 589 reservoirs while the Federation and private producers has 127 reservoirs for producing fish seeds.
It is an outcome of various schemes launched by the State government that the fish seeds production has significantly increased in last 13 years. During 2012-13, the State managed to produce 104.37 crore standard fry fish seeds against the production of 28.68 Crore fish seeds in 2000 – 01.
As per the reports, the State produced 33.29 crore fish seeds in 2001 — 02, 32.33 crore fish seeds in 2002 — 03, 36.78 crore fish seeds in 2003 — 04, 46.13 crore fish seeds in 2004 – 05, 50.55 crore fish seeds in 2005 — 06, 59.17 crore fish seeds in 2006 – 07, 64.96 crore fish seeds in 2007 — 08, 67.50 crore fish seeds in 2008 – 09, 76.28 crore fish seeds in 2009 — 10, 83.96 crore fish seeds in 2010 — 11 and 90.96 crore fish seeds in 2011 — 12.
Chhattisgarh is also among top six fish producing states in the country, officials claimed. The State government had been encouraging production of fish by offering numerous incentives to the fishermen.
About 2.84 lakh metric tonnes of fish was produced in the year 2013-14 in various irrigation waterways and fish tanks. This apart, about 18.79 lakh metric tonnes of fish were produced during the past one decade in the entire State.
In the year 2004-05, 1.20 lakh metric tonnes of fish was produced which rose to 2.84 lakh metric tonnes last year. About 1.48 lakh hectares of irrigation water area is already developed for Pisciculture out of a total area of 1.58 lakh hectares in the entire State.
About 94 per cent of available water resource area is brought under fish cultivation . About 3,573 km water resource area of the rivers is naturally available for Pisciculture .Optimum utilization of the resources is the main goal. The main species of fish production are Rohu, Katla and Mrigal in the State, they stated.
Fish region is developed in Demar village (Dhamtari district) for the fishermen to learn rudiments of fish rearing. According to Fisheries Department officials, in the year 2004-05 , about 1.20 lakh metric tonnes, in 2005-06 about 1.32 lakh metric tonnes in 2007-08, 1.39 lakh metric tonnes in 2008-09 about 1.59 lakh metric tonnes in 2009-10 about 1.74 lakh metric tonnes in 2010-11 about
2.28 lakh metric tonnes in 2011-12 about 2.50 lakh metric tonnes in 2012-13 about 2.55 lakh metric tonnes in 2013-14 about 2.84 lakh metric tonnes fish was produced.
The officials said that fishermen were given seeds for the rearing of fish in the entire State. A Pangecious hatchery was established in Dhamtari district to encourage production of Cat fish at the local level by the State Government. Seven Mangur hatcheries were established in Durg, Raipur, Kabirdham, Bilaspur, Korba, Kondagaon and Koriya.
The Fisheries Department also gave ‘pattas’ to fishermen in an area from 200 hectares to 1,000 hectares and 5,000 hectares and above irrigated water areas under the fish production scheme.
The Panchayat Raj Department was empowered to allocate ‘pattas’ to the fishermen in an area of 200 hectare water resource area for a minimum period of 10 years.
The Chhattisgarh government is providing subsidy to fishermen families for construction of their houses under its Fishermen Housing Scheme, officials stated. In the previous financial year (2013-14), houses for nearly 400 fishermen were constructed under this scheme. From year 2005-06 to present, more than a thousand fishermen families have received subsidy for house construction under the scheme. In the current financial year, the State government has made provision of subsidy for construction of houses for 400 fishermen.
Under Fishermen Housing Scheme, each fishermen is provided a subsidy of `50,000 for construction of their houses. These houses have been constructed near big water reservoirs like Kodar, Gangrel and Bango, and on the private lands of fishermen. The fishermen housing colonies are equipped with proper facilities of water supply and community hall.
To build houses for fishermen under the scheme, 50 per cent subsidy is provided by Central Government and remaining 50 per cent is provided by State Government. For each house, subsidy of `50,000 is provided. Moreover, between every 10 houses, a community hall and a tubewell are facilitated. Amount of `30,000 is sanctioned for tube-well and `1.75 lakh is provided for construction of community hall.
Under the scheme, 240 houses in year 2005-06, 98 houses in year 2006-07, 40 houses in year 2007-08, 86 houses in year 2011-12, 200 houses in year 2012-13, and 400 houses have been constructed for beneficiary fishermen in year 2013-14. The scheme also has provision of subsidy for renovation of fishermen’s houses.