CIFRI Awards
ICAR-Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute, Barrackpore, Kolkata organized an Interactive Workshop on ‘Openwater Fisheries Management of Manipur’ in collaboration with Directorate of Fisheries, Department of Fisheries, Govt. of Manipur at Imphal, Manipur on Feb. 18, 2019. The objective of the workshop was to share vast works and achievements of ICAR-CIFRI in managing and enhancing fisheries in large waterbodies especially in reservoirs and wetlands of the country and how to plan and implement similar activities in the State of Manipur. The major focus was on simple and low-cost technologies (such as pen and cage aquaculture) and guidelines (fish stock enhancement) that are to be popularized in reservoirs, large lakes, swampy areas and rivers of Manipur for improving fish production. Fish forms an important food item for the people of Manipur with more than 95% of its population being fish eaters. The present level of fish production in the State is 32,000 tonnes (2016-17) as against the total requirement of about 52,000 tonnes of fish showing a shortfall of about 20,000 tonnes. This shortage is partly met by importing fish from other States. Manipur has got a production potential of about 65,000 tonnes of fish per annum. For harnessing this, sustainable utilization of available inland fisheries resources and application of modern scientific fisheries management protocols including enclosure aquaculture techniques developed by ICAR-CIFRI needs to be implemented. Manipur has unique, vast and varied inland fisheries resources comprising of 30,171 ha natural lakes/floodplain wetlands, 13,888 ha rivers and streams, 11,442 ha ponds/tanks and 960 ha reservoirs covering 56,461 ha, which is approximately 2.52% of the total geographic area of the State. Inland openwater fisheries resources such as lakes, rivers and reservoirs are largely unexploited and have high potentials for increasing fish production from them. The major theme of the workshop is dissemination the knowledge generated by ICAR-CIFRI for development of inland fisheries in the State of Manipur without compromising ecosystem and environmental sustainability.
In the Inaugural session, Dr. Sona Yengkokpam, Scientist, ICAR-CIFRI Regional Centre, Guwahati welcomed the invitees, guests and 50 participants from the Department of Fisheries, Govt. of Manipur. Dr. B. K. Das, Director, ICAR-CIFRI, Barrackpore and Convenor of the workshop emphasised that the Department of Fisheries, Govt. of Manipur should look into diversification of fish species having local preferences. He assured all support in terms of technology backstopping for management of openwater fisheries in the State. Shri Khamsing Ahum, Additional Director of Fisheries, Govt. of Manipur urged his Departmental officials to take full advantage of the knowledge generated by ICAR-CIFRI on management of Inland openwaters. Dr. A. K. Das, Principal Scientist, ICAR-CIFRI, Barrackpore expressed his optimism that food fish demand and supply gap of Manipur can be minimized if inland openwaters of the State are optimally utilized.
In the Technical session of the workshop, Dr. B.K. Das discussed management of openwaters of India by ICAR-CIFRI and encouraged the Departmental officials to take interest in developing openwaters of the State; Dr. A. K. Das shared his vast experience in cage aquaculture across different reservoirs and wetlands of India; Shri Khamsing Ahum presented the status of openwater fisheries resources of Manipur, Dr. Sona Yengkokpam discussed pen aquaculture demonstrations and experiments done in different NE States, which proved to be successful in terms of economic viability and Dr. Dipesh Debnath, Scientist, ICAR-CIFRI, RC, Guwahati discussed cage aquaculture demonstrations and experiments done in different NE States, that can be replicated in Manipur.
In the valedictory session, Mrs. Bidyarani Ayekpam, Director of Fisheries, Govt. of Manipur thanked Dr. B.K. Das, Director, ICAR-CIFRI and all the scientists of the ICAR- CIFRI for organizing the workshop at Imphal and sought active collaboration and support in future endeavours of the Directorate of Fisheries, Govt. of Manipur.
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