Assam: Workshop on World Fisheries Day 2023 held in Goalpara

GOALPARA : A zonal level workshop on World Fisheries Day 2023 for Lower Assam districts including Goalpara, Chirang, Kokrajhar, Dhubri, Bongaigaon and South Salmara was inaugurated by Excise Minister Parimal Suklyabaidya in presence of fish farmers, members of fishermen cooperative society, members of farmers producer’s company and fishery officials in Goalpara on Wednesday.

Delivering the inaugural speech, minister Suklyabaidya stated that fish being an important source of protein for all ethnic groups, the production of fish in Assam to the tune of 4.43 lakh tonne in 2022-2023 has been a major contribution to the State Agriculture GDP.

He further stated that the government has been proactively supporting the fisheries enterprise development through implementation of several flagship programmes like Prandhan Mantri Matshya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY), APART, Ghare Ghare Pukhuri Ghare Ghare Maach, Gene Bank for Conservation of Fish Germplasm and congratulated all the stakeholders including fish farmers, Officials of Fisheries Department and Scientists in achieving a level near to self sufficiency in production of fish in Assam.

He also distributed improved variety of Fish seed called Amur Carp to several progressive fish farmers including Joydev Das, Sukumar Das and Parikhit Das and hoped that with the introduction of improved variety of fish seed, farmers would be able to reap better production in days to come and explore overseas markets too.

Welcoming all the farmers and dignitaries from various districts Dr. Anupam Sharma, District Fishery Development Officer, Goalpara stated that fisheries is a sunshine sector in the economy and around 3.5 lakh farmers have been engaged in fish culture as primary livelihood in the state and Goalpara district have been sending fish to the neighbouring States at a regular interval and several improved technologies like Biofloc, RAS have been adopted by individual farmers, members of producers groups and company.

Professor Ratan Bhattacharyya, Ex HOD, Department of Zoology, Goalpara College and Dr. Haricharan Das, a distinguished conservation expert of NE India and secretary General Aranya Surakhsya Sammittee were present in the workshop and gave detailed account on the need of indigenous fish conservation and restoration of natural habitat of fish including flood plain wetlands and urged youths to take up aquaculture enterprise for generation of additional employment and food security.

Professor Bhattacharyya in his speech highlighted several factors associated with depletion of water bodies and encroachment of wetland, pollution issue and excessive fishing pressure on fishery resources and stated that scientific intervention on indigenous fish breeding and culture can provide livelihood to many educated unemployed youths.

Several district level officials from Bongaigaon, Dhubri and Goalpara participated in the day-long programme including Amiya Chakraborty, retired District Fishery Officer, Bongaigaon and interacted with farmers.

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