Arunachal: Fish in pond is like money in bank: Taki
ZIRO- Assuring to take pisciculture in the state towards a paradigm shift towards attaining self-sustenance in scientific fish production in the state, Fisheries Minister Tage Taki said that fish in pond was like money in a bank.
Inaugurating a two-day workshop-cum-training programme organized by ICAR-Central Institute of Freshwater Aquacultue (CIFA) Bhubaneshwar, Odisha in collaboration with state Department of Fisheries under North East Hill Region Programme for Aquaculture Development in Arunachal Pradesh here yesterday, Taki urged the farmers to acquaint themselves with latest technology of fish farming developed by CIFA to double their income and make pisciculture a sustainable venture. He also expressed optimism that with the revolution on fish farming taking place during the last three years, the state is reckoned to become self- sufficient in fish and seed production in the coming years. He further assured to provide quality fish seeds and feeds on reasonable prices to enhance fish production in the state to farmers.
Earlier, CIFA Principal Scientist and Chairman NEH Dr. S.K Swain highlighted the aims and objective of the workshop-cum-training programme. He informed that the first workshop of such a kind in the state was a platform to interact with the fish farmers and officers of the fisheries department to channelize the intervention by ICAR through technical inputs and knowledge dissemination for growth of sustainable fishery sector. He further informed that the programme was envisioned to discuss on aquaculture, nutrient management, breeding, culture of catfishes, quality evaluation of brood stock in select areas of the state.
Along with Dr. Swain, ICAR-CIFA scientists Dr. P.P Chakraborty and Dr K.D. Mahapatra interacted with fish farmers and expressed satisfaction on the healthy growth of Amur Carp fish at Paddy-cum-Fish Culture which ranges from 300 to 400 gms in 3 to 4 months which was far better than the Common Carp.
Deputy Director Fisheries N. Pussang briefed the collaborative activities of State Fisheries Department with ICAR-CIFA for better technology dissemination to fish farmers. Meanwhile, farmers requested CIFA to provide demonstration for breeding of Amur Carp in next breeding season to produce quality seeds for replacement of existing varieties of Common Carp culture presently practiced at Paddy-cum-Fish Culture at Ziro valley. They also requested for demonstration of pangas culture.
Principal Scientist Dr. P.P. Chakraborty stressed on the need of integration of fish farming with Pig, Duck, Poultry and Dairy to reduce the cost of supplementary feeding and for faster growth of fishes from a unit area thereby doubling the fish production and income of farmers. He also made a detailed presentation on nutrients management in freshwater aquaculture.
Dr. Kanta Das Mahapatra made a presentation on importance of Broodstock Management for quality seed production and briefed on the problems associated with inbreeding depression in carps while Dr. S. Ferosekhan made a presentation on breeding culture of magur and pangas catfishes.
Along with farmers, officers from Directorate of Fisheries, Lower Subansiri District Fisheries Dev. Officer and RHAFSF Tarin Farm Manager also participated at the training programme.
