By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Dec 23: As many as 55 farmers including 25 women of a locality under Ri-Bhoi Farmers’ Union led by its president D Mazzao and secretary Brightstar K, attended an interactive workshop on ‘Cage culture in Umiam reservoir, Meghalaya’ organized by ICAR-Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute (ICAR-CIFRI), Regional Centre, Guwahati, in collaboration with ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Umiam, at Umniuh Khwan village of Umiam recently.
Scientists and technical personnel of the two ICAR institutes namely Dr Pronob Das, Dr S Borah, AK Yadav, Dr DK Meena, T Tayung, Peetambari Devi, (Scientists), Alakesh Das (TO) and Prasanta Mahanta (STA) acted as resource persons in the programme.
Mazzao, on the other hand, welcomed the guests and participants for the programme and thanked both the ICAR institutes for their initiatives on cage culture in the reservoir for the benefit of the local community led by an all women group.
In his address, Principal Scientist, Division of Animal and Fisheries Science (DAFS), ICAR RC for NEH Region, Umiam, Dr SK Das, informed the participants that cage culture in Umiam reservoir of Meghalaya was initiated for the first time during 2019 by ICAR-CIFRI Regional Centre, Guwahati in collaboration with the ICAR RC for NEHR, Umiam, and Ri-Bhoi Farmers’ Union.
Dr BK Bhattacharjya, Head (Acting), ICAR-CIFRI RC, Guwahati, thanked the Director, ICAR-CIFRI, for sanctioning six numbers of CIFRI-GI cages and providing CIFRI-CcageGrow feed for initiating cage culture in Umiam reservoir.
He mentioned that both ICAR institutes worked together to uplift tribal communities.
Bhattacharjya, while stating that cage culture in reservoirs is coming up in a big way in different states of India through technological back-stopping by ICAR-CIFRI, Barrackpore, and financial assistance under PMMSY programmes, urged the local communities led by women to take utmost interest for making the collaborative cage culture a success even beyond the project period so that similar government support may be received in future.
On the occasion, a leaflet on ‘Management of openwater fisheries in Meghalaya: ICAR-CIFRI interventions’ was released for the benefits of different stakeholders.
A total of 9000 fish fingerlings were released in cages installed in the reservoir and four tonne CIFRI-CAGEGROW feed was provided to the beneficiaries for use in cage culture.
