Awareness programmes on beel fisheries and fish nutrition held at Nagaon

A CORRESPONDENT

NAGAON: Nagaon District Fisheries Department organized a series of awareness and demonstration programmes on beel fisheries development and small fish nutrition promotion at Dighali Beel, Buka Beel and Mikirdhar Beel from Thursday. The programmes were initiated under World Bank aided Assam Agribusiness and Rural Transformation Project (APART) through 'World Fish', a research-based international CGIAR organization.

Over 300 participants including pregnant women and lactating mothers, adolescent girls, children of different ages, Anganwadi workers, school teachers, APART and other fisheries staff, fish farmers and community leaders participated in the programmes. During the awareness drive, Sushil Nath, district fisheries officer, Nagaon, and Dr Sanjay Sarma, Fishery Coordinator of APART, explained about the sources of fish, particularly small, in community level and their consumption habits, including different popular fish recipes prepared by local community at the natural resource of beel fisheries.

Rituparna Pegu, district nodal officer of APART in Nagaon district, co-ordinated these programmes. He also spoke on the importance of such a programme at the cluster level of different development blocks of the district saying that it had a bigger impact to include small fish as a super food in the diversified diet of community people, particularly women and children.

Dr Benoy Barman, senior scientist, and Dr Baishnaba Ch. Ratha, senior nutrition specialist, World Fish, elaborated the strategies for scientific beel fisheries development and small fish production. Dr Ratha demonstrated to ICDS Anganwadi workers and community members, particularly maothers and caretakers of children, the preparation process of small fish powder hygienically at household level with locally available small fish.

During the programme, Prakash Kalita and Bidyut Medhi, APART consultants told fish farmers that large fish can be sold for income, while small fish are harvested regularly for household consumption or, when in excess, for sale within the community or near the market.

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