In a move to increase the fish production using the open water resources, an interactive workshop on openwater fisheries management of Manipur was held in Imphal on Monday.
The workshop which was attended by about 50 fisheries department officials was organized by Indian Council of Agricutlural Research-Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute (ICAR-CIFRI), Kolkata in collaboration with the Directorate of Fisheries government of Manipur.
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Director Dr BK Das of ICAR-CIFRI Bararackpore, Kolkata led officials of ICAR-CIFRI which had already developed a roadmap for inland open water fisheries for the states of North East States for ushering in blue revolution, along with the state fisheries department officials inaugurated the workshop.
Speaking on the occasion, Director Dr BK Das said that the basic objective of holding the workshop is to impart newly developed knowledge on management of inland openwater in the state like Manipur which has enough potential to increase the fish production.
Despite having a production potential of 65,000 tonnes of fish, Manipur which has around 30,171 ha of floodplain wetlands which are recognized as most important fisheries resources according to ICAR-CIFRI, produces about 32,000 tonnes as against the requirement of 52,000 tonnes. Thus this shortage is partly met by importing the fish from other states.
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Optimal utilization of available fisheries resources and application of modern scientific fisheries management protocols and aquaculture techniques are needed for harnessing the potential.
Low cost simple pen aquaculture technology developed for NE region, has proven to be a promising technology for increasing fish production from wetlands and reservoirs. The cost of one unit of the pen developed by ICAR-CIFRI is Rs 49,000.
In the technical session, Principal Scientist Dr AK Das of ICAR-CIFRI spoke on technologies interventions leading to visible changes in openwater fisheries of India while the Dr Sona Yengkokpam ,a scientist at ICAR-CIFRI regional centre Guwahati on pen aquaculture in openwater of northeast India: past achievements and way forward.
Dr Dipesh Debnath also from ICAR-CIFRI regional centre Guwahati also made a presentation on cage aquaculture in openwater of northeast India. Additional Director Khamsing Ahum of Directorate of fisheries government of Manipur also spoke on present status of openwater fisheries resources of Manipur.
It may be mentioned that the various forms of initiatives are being taken up after the state Chief Minister N Biren Singh expressed his desire to develop a roadmap to become self-sufficient in fish production for the state’s population by 2020.