So far, about fourteen Islands have been identified where activities like deep sea fishing, seaweed farming, ornamental fisheries are to be promoted and, also, shore based infrastructure like fishing harbours, fish landing centres and cold storages are to be developed.
The Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying & Fisheries (DADF), under the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, is to provide financial support for these fisheries related activities in these Islands in accordance with the relevant schemes and guidelines of the Blue Revolution plan of the government of India.
“Blue Revolution,” as envisaged by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, targets an investment of INR 17,199 crore ($2.56 billion) under Integrated National Fisheries Action Plan, prepared by the federal government, to triple the export earnings to INR 1,00,000 crore ($14.88 billion) by the year 2020, while promoting sustainable marine fishing and aquaculture.
For wider implementation of the project, union government has identified 7 states in wet lands, 13 for brackish water, 13 for shrimp farming, 9 for mud crab production and 10 for fresh water fishing in reservoirs. The project aims to expand brackish water fishing area as India is utilising only 1.55 lakh hectares of its 14.12 lakh hectares of such area that has high fishing potential.
As per reports, the government of India is in talks with the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank to fund its blue revolution project that aims to increase fish production by 50 per cent to 15.2 million tonnes.
