Jamui district of Bihar lies in the catchments of the Kiul and Barnar Rivers, still, there’s a gap in the supply and demand of fish in the district. Hence, training the fish farmers of the district on “Inland Fisheries Management” is necessary for their livelihood as well as nutritional security. Considering their needs, ICAR-CIFRI, Barrackpore, conducted a seven-day training programme on “Inland Fisheries Management” from April 11–17, 2024, for the fish farmers of Jamui with the objective of doubling fish farmers’ income.
The program was inaugurated by Dr. B.K. Das, Director, ICAR-CIFRI. He highlighted the need to develop skills in inland fisheries management to secure their sustainable means of livelihood in his inaugural speech. Thirty active fish farmers and a fishery official have attended the training program. Additionally, he exhorted the fishermen to study and apply science to maximize productivity and production from their existing resources. Dr. Das also briefed the trainees about the new entrepreneurship avenues available in the inland fisheries sector.
There is great potential for improving livelihoods through the development of inland fisheries in the Jamui district. Through this training program, ICAR-CIFRI sought to close the farmers’ gaps in knowledge, expertise, and mindset about inland fisheries management. The course covered topics such as pond construction and management, managing soil and water chemistry, nurseries and rearing ponds, composite fish culture, natural fish food organisms, candidate fish species for pond aquaculture in Bihar, inducing breeding, ornamental fish farming, enclosure culture, fish feed management, fish disease management, socio-economics and governance related to fisheries management, economic evaluation of fisheries enterprises, climate change and inland fisheries, and showcasing CIFRI products and technologies.
Exposure visits to the field encompassed the following: ICAR-CIFE, Kolkata Centre; ICAR-CIFA Kalyani fish farms; East Kolkata Wetlands (EKW); ornamental fish markets; and a private fish farm at Halisahar. They were given exposure to the Institute’s Recirculatory Aquaculture System (RAS), Bio-floc units, ornamental hatchery units, and feed mill in addition to receiving hands-on training in a variety of need-based subjects, such as basic water quality parameters, preparing fish feed using ingredients that can be found locally, identifying fish pathogens and the appropriate remedies, etc.
The feedback session was marked by the trainee’s overall satisfaction with their upgradation of knowledge, which would be applied to their respective water resources. The training programme was successfully coordinated by Dr. Dibakar Bhakta and Ms. T. N. Chanu coordinated the training program with the assistance of Mr. Kausik Mondal, Dr. Avishek Saha, Mr. Sujit Chowdhuri, and Mr. Manabendra Roy.
Read more: http://www.cifri.res.in/art745.html
