Vijayawada to be country’s fish capital

Vijayawada to be country’s fish capital
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Highlights

The State and the Central governments have started initiatives to make Vijayawada the country’s fish capital in future. The Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) and the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Aquaculture (RGCA) have tied up with the State Fisheries department to promote globally-accepted Tilapia fish.

Centre, State to promote Tilapia fish

Vijayawada: The State and the Central governments have started initiatives to make Vijayawada the country’s fish capital in future. The Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) and the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Aquaculture (RGCA) have tied up with the State Fisheries department to promote globally-accepted Tilapia fish.

Leena Nair, MPEDA chairperson, and AP Fisheries principal secretary Dr Manmohan Singh jointly announced on Thursday that they would work together to promote fish production, particularly Tilapia, through more State seed production centres. The State government has set the target of increasing fish and prawn production from Rs 20,000 crore to Rs 65,000 crore in five years.

MPEDA Chairman  Leena Nair,  Scientific Advisory Committee Chairman Dr EG Silas and former assistant director general World Fish Center, Dr M Vijaya Gupta, at India Tilapia  Summit 2014  in Vijayawada on Thursday

It is preparing an action plan to promote fish/prawn production and proposes to invest Rs 3,000 crore in aquaculture, with Vijayawada as central place. It will hold interactions with farmers of East & West Godavari, Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam and Nellore districts.

To begin with, MPEDA would start Tilapia seed centres at five-six places in AP, said Nair and Dr Singh. As Tilapia fish gets ready for consumption in just three-four months,MPEDA and AP plan to start initial farming in all canals and irrigation tanks to popularise the variety.They would take up intensive campaign among farmers in the costal districts, motivating them to begin Tilapia farming. Of the 76 AP government-owned fish seed farms, 55 are rearing farms, while the rest are production-cum-rearing farms.

The government has a joint farm with Karnataka under the Tungabhadra Board. Two farms, one at Balabhadrapuram (East Godavari) and Penamaluru (Krishna) have been leased to the Indian Council of Agriculture Research for the Central Institute of Fisheries Education, Mumbai, and the Central Institute of Fresh water Aquaculture. It proposes to involve all these institutions to promote Tilapia, thus making the State leading producer of fish in the country.

The department is focusing on utilsing 13,891-km long canals attached to the Krishna, Godavari and Penna rivers, 102 reservoirs and 74,050 tanks available in the State. The 102 reservoirs---of which seven are large, 26 medium and 69 small---are spread over 2.34 lakh hectares, while tanks cover 6.23 lakh hectares.

By:D Gopi

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