With production target of 1.4 lakh metric tonne in fishery for the next financial year, Jharkhand is looking forward to become self-sufficient in fish production.
“In the past couple of years, fish rearing sector has boomed in Jharkhand. We intend to make the State self-sufficient in fish production by strengthening fish farmers of the State and stopping imports from other States. By 2016-17, we are planning to push the production up to 1.4 lakh metric tonnes and to take it above 2 lakh metric tonnes by 2020,” stated Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Minister Randhir Singh while addressing a congregation of aquaculture experts and fishermen on Sunday.
He further said, “Jharkhand has advanced a great deal towards Blue Revolution. We need to introduce youth of the State to fish farming as this will help a great deal in stopping migration for employment from Jharkhand. More training centres will be opened to prepare more skilled fish farmers for the State.”
“Fish farming has endless opportunities in Jharkhand. We intend to use the available water bodies for optimum fish production in the shortest time period possible. For this, we will be employing third-party impact evaluation and use the findings to formulate road map for future,” said Director Fisheries Rajiv Kumar.
“Initiatives like cage culture in fish farming and ‘Matasya Mitra’ have been immensely successful in Jharkhand. Introducing fish seeds in perennial rivers and exhausted coal pits are also commendable steps on part of the state fisheries department. The socio-economic status of fish farmers has improved in Jharkhand,” stated D Sinnapa, Senior Advisor to AFC India limited.
“Focus should now shift to promoting production of ingredients used in fish feed, product marketing and other fields with scope for innovation,” he suggested.
“Our current requirement of fish seed stands at 1.75 crore and our next step should be towards increasing production of fish seeds. Unlike states like West Bengal, we are not able to breed fish in months of March and April, which has to be sorted out,” said the Fisheries Director.
Agriculture Minister stated, “Any and all water bodies, where fish farming is possible, will be utilised. The Matsya Mitras should try to encourage private pond owners to take up fish farming so that the 409561 hectares of water resources under them can be utilised for fish rearing. Also, the small ponds to be dug under the Jalanidhi scheme will be used for fish rearing along with irrigation, with preference given to Matsya Mitras.”