Telangana government is a pursuing a two-pronged strategy for development of the fisheries sector, one that sought to encourage fishermen through a few handholding measures and another to attract entities engaged in fish processing to set up facilities.
This approach comes in the backdrop of the growth potential of the sector. “Fish and prawn processing will be a big sector in times to come in Telangana,” Principal Secretary (Animal Husbandry and Fisheries) Sandeep Kumar Sultania said on Thursday.
To media queries at a curtain raiser for the three-day Aquaex India 2019 fisheries and aquaculture event, from January 31 at Hitex here, he said the focus first is on increasing the production. This the State government is going about by providing seedlings free of cost to fishermen.
This financial year 80 crore seeds are to be supplied or 60% more as the last fiscal 50 crore seeds were provided. The State, he added, almost 25,000 reservoirs with a water spread of 5.73 lakh sq km. Apart from helping increase the production, the government was providing the fishermen with dragnets to improve the catch and vehicles equipped with insulated boxes to transport the produce. It was also constructing markets.
Noting that Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao took a review of the fisheries sector, he said there were plans to set up fish processing units in village and mandal level in association with self-help groups. Another aspect of the plan is to have more industrial parks to host food processing units of corporate entities, including some well-known names globally such as the LuLu group. Such parks, with a thrust on exports, would be equipped with laboratories. The LuLu group, he added, has already entered into an MoU with the State government and had been allotted land for a park.
On the fish production in the State, Mr.Sultania said would be 3.5 lakh tonne this fiscal. In 2017-18, it was 2.7 lakh tonne.
Comprising an exhibition and conclave, Aquaex India 2019, being organised by the Department of Fisheries in association with the Society for Indian Fisheries and Aquaculture (SIFA) and others, is expected to attract more than 200 exhibitors from the country and abroad. They will be showcasing latest technologies, services, equipment and machinery.