GUWAHATI, Sept 21 - The ICAR- Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute, Guwahati Regional Centre organised an interactive workshop, �Aquatic Animal Diseases in Assam� under the National Surveillance Programme on Aquatic Animal Diseases (NSPAAD) on Tuesday.
A total of 77 individuals, including fish farmers, government officials from 17 districts of Assam and other officials took part in the workshop.
Dr BK Das, Director, ICAR-CIFRI, welcomed the participants and emphasised developing fisheries in the NE region with assurance of technical support and co-operation from the institute. He outlined the activities carried out by the institute in the State.
Dr AK Sahu, DBT visiting professor and former head of aquaculture production, ICAR- CIFA, emphasised water fisheries development in the NE region.
MC Jauhari, Principal Secretary Fisheries, Government of Assam, outlined the steps initiated by the State Department of Fisheries for attaining self-sufficiency in fish production. He stated that at present the State is producing 2.94 lakh tonnes against a demand of 3.25 lakh tonnes, thereby reducing the gap to 42,000 tonnes. �The department has launched an ambitious scheme �Ghare ghare pukhuri, ghare ghare machh� for increasing area covered under pond aquaculture in 25,000 villages of the State,� he revealed. He requested the Director, ICAR-CIFRI, Barrackpore, to provide technical support for fish disease management to the department by entering into an MoU.
The Principal Secretary also released the workshop manual.
The technical session which followed, enlightened the farmers on various topics as chemotherapy and aquaculture medicine, breeding of magur and larval rearing, prevailing fish diseases in Assam and best management practices in aquaculture.
Dr BK Das, Dr AK Sahu, Dr BP Mohanty, Dr BK Behera, Dr AK Sahoo, Dr KK Tamuli and Dr B Kalita acted as resource persons at the workshop.
State Minister of Fisheries Parimal Suklabaidya and Bimal Borah, MLA, Tingkhong constituency, attended the valedictory session of the workshop. Addressing the gathering Suklabaidya emphasised making Assam self-sufficient in fish production. He reiterated the need and importance of controlling fish disease to reduce economic losses. He also highlighted the recent initiatives of the Government of Assam to bring about a blue revolution in the State and improve export of fish from the State.
