GUWAHATI, Aug 20 - The Guwahati regional centre of the Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute (CIFRI) recently organised a five-day training programme on beel fisheries management for livelihood improvement.
The training programme, sponsored by the National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB), Hyderabad, and held at CIFRI, focused on various aspects of beel fisheries management and development, stock enhancement of cage and pen culture in beels, soil and water quality management in beels, disease management, nutritional aspects, role of biotic communities in beel fisheries management and guidelines, along with practical sessions on soil and water quality analysis and collection and preservation of biotic communities from beels, said a statement issued by CIFRI.
Altogether 26 participants comprising eighteen fishery development officers from the State Department of Fisheries, along with two entrepreneurs and two officials from the Department of Fisheries, Nagaland and four fishery department officials from Manipur, including Joint Director of Fisheries Khamsing Ahum, attended the programme.
The participants also visited the Samguri Beel, Nagaon and 47 Morakolong Beel, Morigaon where cage and pen culture activities of ICAR-CIFRI are being undertaken.
The programme was held under the guidance of Dr BK Das, Director of ICAR-CIFRI, Barrackpore, and coordinated by Dr BK Bhattacharjya, Head (Acting) of ICAR-CIFRI, Guwahati. In the same programme, Dr Utpal Sarma, head of Remote Sensing Division, ASTEC, Guwahati, spoke on the application of remote sensing and GIS as a decision support tool in beel fisheries management.
Attending the valedictory session of the programme, State Fisheries Minister Parimal Suklabaidya underscored the importance of management of beels in the region for enhancing fish production.
Suklabaidya also stressed the need for conservation of wetlands in the State.
