Ornamental fishing boost to help farmers, SHGs

UMERKOTE: With the objective of boosting ornamental fish farming, providing employment opportunities to farmers and making them self sufficient, five coloured fish farming centers were inaugurated at village Taragam and Karchamal in Nabarangpur district on Friday.

A Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture research institute (CIFA) Bhubaneswar initiative, the ornamental fish farming centres have been established at Taragoan, UV 2, Karchamal, Kapoor and Kusumjhoor. Collector  Ajit Kumar Mishra, who inaugurated the project, said, the centres have been developed under the Science and Technology (S&T) Intervention programme being  prompted by ICAR and CIFA. “Ancillary equipment are being provided to the  farmers through tribal improvement projects,” he said.  Thirty fish farmers of the district have been selected for training by CIFA officials of which 15 each from Nabarangpur and Umerkote areas will be trained in the first phase. “This project will provide employment support to tribal women of SHGs in the villages the centres have been set up,” said CIFA director  Saroj Kumar Swain. 

The five centers have a capacity to produce 25 crores of fish twins (5 crores in each center ) which will go a long way in making Nabarangpur self sufficient in fish farming and can supply fish twins and grown up fishes to neighbouring states and districts, added Mishra. With increasing demand for ornamental fish, acquariculture, of late has grown in popularity due to low cost technology involved and  opportunities it offers to SHGs and Cooperatives to earn good money.