By a Correspondent
Imphal, Feb 20,
The Indian Council of Agricultural Research-Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute (ICAR-CIFRI), Kolkata which developed the roadmap for inland open water fisheries for NE states for ushering in blue revolution, is collaborating with Manipur government for the self-sufficient in fish production by 2020.
As part of the initiative, an interactive workshop on openwater fisheries management of Manipur was organised by ICAR-CIFRI, Kolkata in collaboration with the Directorate of Fisheries, Government of Manipur in Imphal on Monday.
The workshop which aims to provide promising technology for increasing fish production using the open water resources, was attended by about 50 fisheries department officials.
Speaking to this reporter, Director Dr BK Das of ICAR-CIFRI said that objective of the workshop is to impart newly developed knowledge on management of inland openwater in the state like Manipur which have enough potential to increase the fish production.
“We’re getting only about 75 kg of fish from one hectare which is very low against the production potential. But the production reach 100 to 200 kg in other stocking methods such as pen and sage culture,” Dr BK Das said.’ “Generally the state fisheries officials do not have much knowledge on such practices, so we’ll work to give knowledge so that something comes up for the betterment of the state.”
Manipur has vast fisheries resources comprising of 30,171 hectares(ha) of natural lake/floodplain wetlands,13,888 ha of rivers and streams,11,442 ha of ponds/tanks and many reservoirs which approximately 2.52 percent of the total geographical area of the state, according to ICAR-CIFRI.
Despite having a production potential of 65,000 tonnes of fish, Manipur produces about 32,000 tonnes as against the requirement of 52,000 tonnes. This shortage is partly met by importing the fish from other states.
Optimal utilisation of available fisheries resources and application of modern scientific fisheries management protocols and aquaculture techniques are needed for harnessing the potential.
The initiative of Manipur government is being taken considering the siphoning of a huge amount of money outside the State to purchase fish feeds every year and also to increase fish production. A State Level Committee had also already been formed under the initiative of chief minister N Biren to achieve self sufficiency in fish production by 2020.
During the event, Principal Scientist Dr AK Das of ICAR-CIFRI, scientist Dr Sona Yengkokpam and Dr Dipesh Debnath also made a presentations on technologies interventions leading to visible changes in openwater fisheries, on pen and cage aquaculture in openwater of northeast India.