OdishaPlus Bureau
Union Minister of State for Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises & Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, Dairying Pratap Chandra Sarangi on Wednesday urged the scientists to bring innovations for the small scale aqua farmers of the country.
Lauding the ICAR-CIFA institute for its service to the nation at a function to mark the National Fish Farmers’ Day function here, he said the government is committed for aquaculture development through the recently announced Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana and exhorted the scientists to develop viable organic fish farming models and water efficient aquaculture methods to increase the productivity and conserving the environment at the same time. The Union Minister urged the farmers to adopt advanced scientific methods to produce more fish and achieve self-sufficiency.
Haribandhu Panda, Vice Chancellor of Centurion University of Technology and Management Bhubaneswar was the Guest of Honour on this occasion.
He urged all stakeholders to bring more synergy and convergence to develop an ecosystem by which aquaculture value chain can be established to benefit society.
Director, Falcon Marine Exports Pvt Ltd Priyanka Mohanty briefed about the changing market scenarios and emphasized on how the small farmers can take part in the growth story of the aquaculture development in the country.
ICAR-CIFA Director Dr. Bindu R Pillai briefed the major achievements of the institute during the last 3 decades towards the freshwater aquaculture sector in the country.
She also outlined the recent inventions of the institute like Rohu Jayanti, FRP portable hatchery, feeds for different life stages of fish, disease diagnostics kits, improved CIFABROODTM, Hybridization detection kit and other useful technologies for the farmers.
Around 90 fish farmers from Odisha and other parts of the country were present at the event. Thirteen fish farmers from different parts of India were felicitated for their contributions to the development of freshwater aquaculture. The awardees also shared their experience in fish farming with the audience.