States Chosen For Advanced Pisciculture

TheTimesOfIndia reports that NFDB has requested the state government to identify two large freshwater reservoirs to produce fish through the cage culture system. C. Vasudevappa met the state fisheries and animal resources secretary Satyabrata Sahu regarding the implementation of the project in Orissa.

"First time we will go for the commercial cage culture in the country where the fish production will be high because of the cultivation in larger water bodies. We are planning to start it with at least two reservoirs in each state," said Vasudevappa at the workshop on "fish feed", organised by the Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture (CIFA).

Under the cage culture, fish will be reared from fry to fingerling, fingerling to table size, or table size to marketable size in an enclosed space. The cage will be enclosed on all sides with mesh netting made from synthetic material that can resist decomposition in water for a long time.

Vasudevappa said a 'brood bank' would be set up on 170 acre land adjacent the CIFA campus to develop nutritious breeding fish. The brood bank would be owned by the state fisheries department, sources said.

Shiba Shankar Giri, head of CIFA's fish nutrition and physiology division laid stress on the measures to overcome the fish feed deficit in freshwater aquaculture. Orissa produces around 1.5 lakh tonne fish from several freshwater aquaculture sources for which the requirement of feed stands at about 3.5 lakh tonne.

"But there is a huge deficit of the feed in the state as well as in other states. We should identify newer or unexplored feed resources and use non-conventional feed ingredients to meet the shortfall," Mr Giri said.

"We are creating a database for availability of region-based feed ingredients. The quality of the feed will also be ensured," Mr Giri maintained.

CIFA released six species of fish feeds on Tuesday. CIFA director P Jayshankar and ADG of Indian Council of Agricultural Research, S D Singh among others spoke.