Knowledge and Skill Development through Training at
ICAR-CIFRI, Barrackpore for farmers of Bhagalpur, Bihar
A 7-days training programme on “Inland Fisheries Development” for the farmers of Bhagalpur
District, Bihar was inaugurated by Dr. B.K Das, Director, ICAR-CIFRI on 25 Oct, 2018 at ICAR-
CIFRI Head Quarter, Barrackpore. A total of 31 fishers participated in the programme. The
programme has been organized based on the need of fishermen and fish farmers of Bhagalpur
district, Bihar as Bhagalpur has vast range of perennial and seasonal ponds, reservoirs, canals
including mauns & chaurs of Gangetic basin giving the district ample scope of livelihood
improvement through development of inland fisheries. In this training programme, ICAR-CIFRI
aimed at bridging up the gap in knowledge, skill and attitude of the farmers towards inland
fisheries management. The programme was inaugurated by Dr. B.K. Das, Director, ICAR-CIFRI
who addressed the trainees and emphasized on the need of skill development of the fish
farmers on various facets of inland fisheries management to eradicate poverty and malnutrition
in rural India ensuring their livelihood. He also spoke about the entrepreneurial opportunities in
fisheries which can be harnessed with better marketing and business skills. He also interacted
with the trainees and asked them to put their learning into practice and to disseminate the
knowledge gathered from the training sessions among fellow farmers after going back to their
native place. The programme consisted of four days of lectures along with hands on training
sessions and three days of field exposure visits in East Kolkata Wetlands (EKW), ornamental fish
market, Kolkata; ICAR-CIFA field station, Kalyani, pen culture in Mathura beel, Naihati fish
market and Kamalgachhi, Balagarh. The training programme contains sessions on various
aspects of inland fisheries management which include water and soil chemistry, induced
breeding of fish, fish health management, wetland management, ornamental fish culture, cage
culture, fish feed preparation, Recirculatory culture system for cage stock production, fish
marketing etc. The programme is scheduled to be initiated with need assessment of the
trainees with the help of knowledge test and to end with collection of feedback from them for
improvement of future training programs of the Institute. The training programme was well
coordinated by Dr. A.K Das, I/C E & T Cell and Co-coordinated by Dr. Aparna Roy and Ms.
Sukanya Som.