The ICAR, under its National Agricultural Innovation Project’s Production to Consumption Scheme, has released this sum as a grant to CARE, selected from 12 other research institutions competed for this assistance, reports The Hindu.
According to The Hindu, under this four-year long programme, the CARE, in association with Central Institute for Freshwater Aquaculture, Bhubaneshwar, Orissa and Live Fee Research Centre of New College, Chennai, will train 100 inland fish farmers every year on the culture of murrel, a freshwater fish variety for its medicinal properties, provide the beneficiaries with thousands of murrel seeds and fish feed and also assist them in marketing the harvested adult (one-year-old) murrels, weighing about 1 kg to 1.250 kg.
“Since one kg of murrel is being sold between Rs.200 and Rs.250, the farmers’ training programme will be big hit and their fish culture venture certainly a profitable endeavour,” former director of CARE and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research Emeritus Professor M.A. Haniffa, told the Hindu.
According to a statistics available in India, the district has been blessed with 2,250 ponds and small irrigation tanks having an extent of over 9,600 hectares.
Indian Grant to Train Farmers on Murrel Culture
INDIA - The Centre for Aquaculture Research and Extension (CARE) of St. Xaviers College, Palayamkottai, has received a grant of Rs30,200,000 crore from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research to train the inland fish farmers on murrel fish culture techniques.