Nongpoh: The Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) with the support of Inland Fisheries Research Institute (CIFRI), has introduced cage fish culture in Umiam reservoir.
In this regard, the office of the ICAR-CIFRI, Regional Center, Guwahati in collaboration with the Fisheries Division of the ICAR Research Complex, Umiam on Wednesday organised a stakeholder consultation-cum-training programme on cage culture in Umiam reservoir.
The programme was held at Umniuh Khwan village under the overall guidance of BK Das, director, ICAR-CIFRI, Barrackpore, SK Das, principal scientist & head, Fisheries Division, ICAR RC for NEH Region, Umiam and BK Bhattacharjya, acting head, ICAR-CIFRI RC, Guwahati.
The department of fisheries was represented by Paul Tariang, superintendent of fisheries, Ri-Bhoi.
Scientists and technical personnel of the two institutes, Dipesh Debnath, Pronob Das, Niti Sharma, Peetambari Devi, Gojendro Singh, Alakesh Das and Prasanta Mahanta attended the programme as resource persons.
As many as 50 fishermen and farmers from different parts of the district under the Ri Bhoi Farmers’ Union led by D Mazzao, president and Brightstar Kharmujai, secretary were also present.
BK Bhattacharjya spoke about the purpose of the programme and informed the participants that cage culture in Umiam reservoir is being initiated for the first time.
“It was possible because of the overall leadership of JK Jena, DDG (Fisheries), ICAR, New Delhi and BK Das, director, ICAR-CIFRI, Barrackpore in sanctioning six CIFRI-GI cage units,” he said.
He informed that cage culture in reservoirs is coming up in a big way in states like Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra and Mizoram through technological back-stropping by ICAR-CIFRI, Barrackpore.
S Hazarika, principal scientist & nodal officer, TSP, ICAR RC for NEHR, Umiam said that many welfare schemes are being implemented in NE states with moderate success mainly because of the discontinuation of schemes once government support is withdrawn.
He urged the fishermen to continue cage culture even after withdrawal of government support so that it sets a good example for the fishermen communities.
Tariang, said Meghalaya has sizeable resources in terms of fisheries in the form of reservoirs, rivers, wetlands and ponds.
“However, Meghalaya still meets much of its demand for fish consumed in the state from outside,” he said. He encouraged the fishermen to take utmost interest in making the project a success so that similar government support may be expected in future.
Meanwhile, SK Das thanked BK Das, director, ICAR-CIFRI for sanctioning the cages and informed that the ICAR-CIFRI and ICAR RC for NEHR came together for this initiative for the benefit of the tribal fishermen of the region.
Pronob Das encouraged the fishermen to take utmost care of the stocked fish in cages. During the technical session on cage culture, resource persons from the two institutes interacted with the fishermen and explained the different aspects of cage culture including feeding schedules and monitoring.
