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Union Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Parshottam Rupala lauded start-ups and scientific community for developing innovative technologies for the benefit of fishermen . He also lauded them for enhancing fish production and productivity through the adoption of modern and scientific methods of fishing and aquaculture.
He was addressing the National Fish Farmers Day 2023 meeting, Fisheries Summer Meet and Start-up Conclave at Mahabalipuram near Chennai on Monday. Highlighting a recent innovation, the Union Minister said that an app ‘Report Fish Disease’ was released last week, which helps farmers to report disease cases in finfish, shrimps and molluscs on their farms to the field level-officers and fish health experts and get scientific advice quickly.
Rupala said aquaculture is one of the fastest growing food producing sectors providing livelihood and employment to about three crore fishers and fish farmers in the country. The Centre has introduced Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) with investment of ₹20,050 crores, the highest-ever investment in fisheries and aquaculture sector in the country, to bring “Blue Revolution”.
Way ahead
In his address, L Murugan, Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, and Fisheries , Animal Husbandry and Dairying said that only around ₹4,000 crore was invested in the fisheries sector between 1950 and 2014. “But in the last nine years, ₹38,000 crore has been invested in the sector through schemes like Blue Revolution plan, Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund (FIDF), and PMMSY,” he said.
He added that, as announced in the Union budget, modernising works on five fishing harbours Kochi, Chennai, Visakhapatnam, Paradip and Petuaghat has already begun to make these as hubs of economic activity.
Abhilaksh Likhi, Secretary, Department of Fisheries, said the conclave is to discuss and review policy issues, progress of schemes, ground-level implementation, outcome and make mid-course corrections.
Likhi added that aggregation of fish farmers into farmer producer organisations (FPOs), setting up fishery micro enterprises and agri-start-ups, private sector participation, and technology inclusion and adoption will be four levers of growth of the fisheries industries.
Rupala also presented awards to 12 start-ups, which won the “Fisheries Start-up Grand Challenge’ for creating exceptional impact in the fisheries ecosystem.
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