In order to achieve the objective of real goals of the ambitious Blue Revolution project, the Centre has lined up Rs25,000 crore investments in various sectors of fisheries in the next 3 to 5 years.
Secretary of the Department of Fisheries, Rajni Sikhri Sibal said, “We are looking at 3 types of support by way of infrastructure development in harbours; extending subsidies to joint venture projects to establish hatcheries or nurseries or quarantine facilities and viability gap funding to set up processing plants, cold chain facilities at harvest or landing sites”.
As inland fisheries contribute only 50% of the total fish production, the Centre plans to extend its potential by covering reservoirs, wetlands, rivers & streams in various parts of the country. She said, “We plan to promote cold water fisheries in the whole Himalayan region to rear high value fishes. We will soon ink a MoU with Denmark and Iceland to breed trout fish, a high value variety. In this regard, we have already signed a MoU with Norway”.
Taking into consideration the low contribution of inland water fisheries, the Union Government plans to boost its production to 6 million tonnes from 3 million tonnes in the next 3 -4 years. To attain the target, Sibal said quality feed, quality seed, aquatic animal health laboratories, quarantine facilities are main requirements.
