Krishna ranks first in aquaculture in country

Machilipatnam: Krishna district tops in aquaculture in the country for the second consecutive year with fish and prawn is cultivated in over 68,000 hectares.

Machilipatnam Revenue Development Officer (RDO) N Khajavali said that fish and prawn are cultivated in 49,000 hectares of salt water and in over 19,000 hectares in the fresh water.

Khajavali was the chief guest for the Fisheries Day celebrations organised at the Zilla Panchayat office here on Sunday. Addressing the local fishermen, he said every year Fisheries Day is observed on November 21 in the world.

Khajavali said the State government is implementing many welfare schemes for the fishermen and rendering assistance. Krishna strict has coastline of 111-km and stood first in the country in aqua cultivation for the last two years. He underlined the need for the protection of ecosystem to maintain the fish stocks in the oceans, rivers and other places.

He said fish is one of the important sources of food for the human being from ancient times to the modern times and added that the demand for the fish is not decreasing due to high content of protein in the fish. He said 10 crore metric tonnes of fish is consumed every year in the world and around 40 crore people earn a living from fishing.

Joint Director of Fisheries department Shaik Lal Ahmed said both agriculture and aqua cultivation are one of the important sources of livelihood to the people of Andhra Pradesh. He said fish is one of the important foods in the state. Krishna district Fisheries Cooperative Society president Chinta Govind stressed upon the need for mutual cooperation between the scientists and fisheries to increase the income of fishermen. Local fishermen have submitted representation to the officials on their demands.

Later, the Fisheries department officials replied to the queries of the fishermen on implementation of schemes like Rythu Bharosa and subsidy being given by the government on supply of diesel, boats, iceboxes, aqua feed etc.