ICAR-CIFA organized one day workshop for tribal fish farmers of Bharuch District, Gujarat
Bhubaneswar: One Day workshop on “Sustainable aquaculture by tribal fish farmers of Gujarat” was organized by Anand Regional Research Centre of ICAR-CIFA at Jambusar, Bharuch District of Gujarat on 2 June, 2017. It was conducted under the Tribal Sub-Plan Programme of the institute. More than 130 participants including scientists, academicians, extension officials, development officers and progressive tribal fish farmers attended the event.
Dr B C Mohapatra, Chairman of TSP and Principal Scientist, ICAR-CIFA, Bhubaneswar in his welcome address said that to bring more water bodies in to aquaculture in India, there is needed a huge quantity of quality seed for stocking, and that could be met through wider adoption of hatchery technologies. He focused for dissemination of location specific aquaculture technologies in the tribal areas of Gujarat and explained the economic benefits of the aquaculture to the farming community.
Dr. C.K. Misra, Scientist In-Charge of RRC of ICAR-CIFA, Anand, Gujarat briefed the genesis and objectives of the event. Shri K B Tandel, Superintendent of Fisheries, Bharuch District highlighted the need of diversification of aquaculture practices in tribal districts with latest information from research institutes such as ICAR-CIFA and emphasized to take benefits of different schemes of Government of Gujarat for the overall socioeconomic development. Shri Shravan Bhai Rathod, Local Sarpanch of Kalak Gram Panchayat, Jambusar Taluka of Bharuch District said that the intervention of ICAR-CIFA has inspired them to follow the aquaculture operations in scientific manner amongst the local tribal communities. Shri C F Joseph, Executive Director, Vikas Centre for Development said regarding the successful interventions of ICAR-CIFA scientist for improving the aquaculture productivity in tribal areas of Gujarat. Shri Jaimin H. Bhatt, Scientist, Anand Agricultural University explained about various fisheries interventions of Krishi Vigyan Kendra for holistic development of tribal communities of Gujarat.
In the inaugural session, Dr J K Sundaray, Director of ICAR-CIFA, Bhubaneswar, Odisha emphasized for improvement of nutritional security in addition to improving the livelihood conditions of tribal farmers through adoption of scientific aquaculture practices including good quality fish seed for stocking, providing supplementary feed to fish and adopting better management practices.
The participants of the event witnessed the ongoing progress of scientific aquaculture interventions of ICAR-CIFA at that area with diversified fish and shell fish species such as catla, rohu, mrigal, grass carp, silver carp, prawn and genetically improved rohu, Jayanti. It is to mention that at present 2.8 hectare pond area belonging to 42 tribal families of the area has been adopted by ICAR-CIFA for scientific aquaculture demonstration programme.
The Inaugural session was followed by interactive discussions with the participants. Vote of thanks was proposed by Shri Ajit Keshav Chaudhari, Scientist, RRC of ICAR-CIFA, Anand.