(timesofindia) The Centre has set the goal to double fish production in the North East region and targeting to achieve a per capita availability of 15 kg of fish by 2020 as part of the activities promoting livelihood, director of Odisha-based Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture (CIFA) Dr P Jayasankar said on Tuesday.
"We have a daunting task of achieving a per capita availability of 15 kg in the region with a total production of about seven lakh tones by 2020," the CIFA chief said.
The task would also mean that the region has to double its fish production in another eight years, Jayasankar said at a consultative conclave on Aquaculture Development for the stakeholders of North Eastern states including Sikkim.
Identifying the region as 'rich' in natural resources for fisheries, the CIFA director said the NE states with a total of 14,648 km of riverine fisheries resources in the forms of rivers, reservoirs, lakes and ponds, streams and flood plains, wetland fish species are "ideal environment".
Rueing that the region's exploitation of aquatic resources has remained 'low', Jayasankar said expanding of fishery resources both horizontally and vertically could open up vast opportunities in aquaculture development.
Presently, the region produces over three lakh metric tonne of fish in a year with Meghalaya contributing to 4,577 MT, Assam 2.3 lakh MT, Manipur 20,200 MT, Mizoram 2,901 MT,Nagaland 6,585 MT, Tripura 49,231 MT and Sikkim 180 MT.
Meghalaya government is raising 100 fish sanctuaries set to promote tourism apart from setting itself a target to produce 25,000 MT of fish in a year at the end of the 12th Year Five year Plan which would also mean that investment would be raised from a mere Rs 3 crore to 1200 crore a year, K N Kumar, principal secretary (Fisheries) said.