The Department of Fisheries & Aquatic Resources in collaboration with Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture (ICAR-CIFA), Bhubaneswar, Odisha distributed 140 packets of Amur carp seeds (cyprinus carpio haematopterus) that contains 1000 carps in a packet for paddy cum fish culture to farmers of Kohima District on Wednesday at the Directorate of fisheries & Aquatic Resources, Kohima.
Dr Vimezo Kire, Deputy Director, Fisheries & Aquatic Resources, gave a brief overview and highlighted the importance of Amur carps that can thrive in shallow water, tolerate temperature fluctuations, withstand high turbidity and grow to marketable size in a short period. He urged the farmers of the district to adapt to new technologies and improved varieties of fish to increase the productivity per unit area.
Kire requested the first beneficiaries to maintain the proper record and report the results to the department as their results will decide the continuation of the project for the rest of the districts
Kire also thanked Dr P K Sahoo, Director, ICAR- CIFA, Dr S Adhikar, Principal Scientist and Co-Chairman of NEH, ICAR-CIFA and Dr R N Mandal, Principal Scientist and Principal Investigator of the project ICAR-CIFA, Bhubaneswar, Odisha for providing all necessary assistance towards the project.
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Dr S Adhikar, Principal Scientist, ICAR-CIFA said the main philosophy behind the project was to make the farmers understand to culture the fishes throughout the year. He said the purpose of this project is to support and make the poor and marginalised farmers self-sufficient by having access to extra incomes.
He also disclosed the interest of the institute to initiate pig cum fish culture and duck cum fish culture in the long run in all eight North-Eastern hills and added “but the last two years we have given much more importance to Nagaland and Assam because our staffs are reducing and funds are also reducing”
“We will come back and see how much farmers are successful,” Dr Adhikar added
The project is initiated by the Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture (ICAR-CIFA) for experimentation in the state and the project will continue to benefit farmers of all districts in Nagaland depending on the results of the first beneficiaries.
The department also conducted a State Level training Programme on “Paddy Cum Fish Culture” with Dr S Adhikar, Principal Scientist and Dr R N Mandal, Principal Scientist from ICAR- CIFA, Bhubaneswar, Odisha as the resource persons.
