Jharkhand: Garhwa residents elated over launch of five fisheries projects
Ranchi: The launch of a slew of projects in Jharkhand by the Department of Fisheries, with five in the Garhwa region alone, has left the residents excited and enthused as they expect this to bring a notable change in their livelihood and also augment income-generation for the fish farmers.
Many Garhwa locals, engaged in the fisheries sector, welcomed the move and thanked the government for allocating five of seven projects to this region alone. Fish trade remains a key business here, and the upcoming projects are expected to give a fillip to the sector.
The project of Nurul Hoda Ansari of Pipra in Meral block has been approved under the Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund (FIDF) scheme. An amount of four crore rupees has been allocated for the program.
Notably, FIDF envisages the creation of fisheries infrastructure facilities both in the marine and inland fisheries sectors, and to augment the fish production to achieve the target of 15 million tonnes by 2020 set under the Blue Revolution.
This will be used for state-of-the-art fish farming, infrastructure, and seed production development units. Besides this, four other schemes are in the pipeline, including cages installed in the Annaraj Dam.
Under this, the government is continuously striving for the conservation and promotion of the endangered tribal communities in this area.
The purpose behind the initiative is to make the tribal families self-reliant by connecting them to the fish trade. The District Fisheries Department is working to connect these families with fish farming under the RRF (Riverine Fisheries for Flowing Waters) scheme.
Under this scheme, rivers and streams with a natural flow of water are selected, and fish farming is carried out in them. The villagers are very happy to see such a large project by the fisheries department in their area. They say that this will empower them to become self-reliant, and their income will increase.
Experts also foresee good prospects in the region. A large number of fish farmers live here. Currently, seven thousand are registered fishermen, and if more fish farmers join the scheme, it will spur more output and progress in the fisheries sector.
