World Bank funded Capacity building program on ‘Tank based fish production model’ for fisheries officials of Andhra Pradesh
Barrackpore, 26th September, 2022
The Government of Andhra Pradesh has identified fisheries sector as a growth engine for the state and it promotes rational exploitation and utilization of its fishery resources including the irrigation tanks for fish production. Towards the development of tank fisheries, Andhra Pradesh government has initiated APIIATP project funded by World Bank, under which a total of 243 tanks have been identified for development of fisheries in 12 districts of Andhra Pradesh.
ICAR-Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute, Barrackpore organized capacity building cum exposure visit program on “Tank based fish production model” from 20-25, September 2022 for the officials of Fisheries department of Govt. of Andhra Pradesh under the World Bank project-APIIATP. Twenty officials of department of Fisheries of project districts participated in this exposure visit cum capacity building program.
Dr. B. K. Das, Director, ICAR-CIFRI encouraged the participants to develop the knowledge and skills required for developing tank-based fish production model, to generate employment and livelihood security in the state. In his address, Dr. Das, briefed about the present status of aquaculture developments in the state of Andhra Pradesh highlighting the major sustainability issues addressed by the sector such as indiscriminate use of antibiotics, residue and antimicrobial resistance of pathogens and subsequent impacts on human health. He stressed upon the importance of stocking large-sized fingerlings for culture-based fisheries practices and to focus on harnessing the natural productivity through promoting natural fish farming in inland open waters towards sustainable fisheries.
The 5 days training program emphasized on various topics of management of tanks and reservoirs such as CBF for production enhancement, biotic and abiotic attributes in defining production functions of tank fisheries, water quality management, enclosure culture, application of GIS and remote sensing, fish disease management, feed preparation and feeding protocol, seed certification, economics and marketing, institutional arrangements and governance for tank fisheries management. The trainees were taken to a field exposure visit to Maithon reservoir in Jharkhand for showcasing the cage and pen culture systems in situ fisheries.
At the end of the training program, the participants expressed their satisfaction and remarked that the knowledge gained by them during the training will help them achieve the targeted production from these tanks.