By a Correspondent
Imphal, Nov 15,
Manipur needed committed farmers and entrepreneur to come up for ornamental aquaculture as it becomes a lucrative occupation.
This was conveyed by most of the speakers in the ongoing 3-days training on Ornamental Fish Farming which is underway here at Manipur centre of Indian Council of Agricultural Research(ICAR) Complex for NE hill region here.
The training programme which is scheduled to continue till Friday was jointly organized by ICAR – Central Institute for Freshwater Aquaculture, Bhubaneshwar, Odisha and ICAR, Manipur Centre Lamphelpat.
The Joint Director Dr I Meghachandra Singh of ICAR Research complex for NEH Region Manipur Centre,Principal Scientist Dr PP Chakrabarti who is the Chairman NEH for CIFA and Principal Scientist Dr Saroj K Swain of CIFA attended the inaugural session of the training programme.
In his speech, Dr Meghachandra spoke about the potential about indigenous ornamental fish species available in Manipur while Principal Scientist Dr Chakrabarti said the relevant departments, research institutions and agencies ought to pay special attention to disseminate the most modern and scientific methods for rearing of ornamental fish in the state so as to create more income and employment of the youth.
On the other hand Principal Scientist Dr Saroj who is the Course Director spoke about the production and marketing of ornamental fish species as there are lot of demand in commercial varieties. Stating that they are targeting the unemployed youths of the state, he said that they would like to take up follow programmes apart from providing training to the farmers.
About 30 trainees’ mostly unemployed youths from various districts of the state besides fisheries officials, technical officers of ICAR Manipur center and scientists from allied institutes such as Central Agricultural University, Institute of Bio-resources Sustainable Development and Krishi Vigyan Kendras participated in the day’s programme.
Senior Scientist Dr Ch Basudha Devi, Scientists Dr Kh Rishikanta Singh and Dr Sunil S Ail were the Training coordinators.
During the three days training, various topics on ornamental fish rearing, breeding, water quality management, health and establishment of ornamental fish culture unit will be discussed besides fabrication of Glass aquarium, according to Dr Basudha.
Reports said, approximately 200 species of freshwater fish from Eastern Himalaya are caught and exported as ornamental fish and about 2500 species are involved in the global ornamental fish trade. Out of which over 60 percent are of freshwater ornamental fishes.About 90 percent of ornamental fish is traded from Kolkata followed by 8 percent from Mumbai and 2 percent from Chennai.
