A FPC Meet was organized at CIFRI, Barrckpore on 29th April, 2023 in collaboration with Sundarban Dreams, an active NGO working in the eastern region of the country. The objective of the meet was to build the capacity of the FPC members on livelihood enhancement through inland fisheries. It was whole day progranmme started with inauguration session followed by three technical sessions: Fisheries for Income Generation; Marketing and Financial Strategies for FPC and Development and monitoring of FPC.
Dr. M.V Rao,IAS, Chairperson, West Bengal Electricity Regulatory Commission graced the occasion as chief guest and Dr. B.K Chand, Joint Director Research, WBUAFS graced the occasion as guest of Honour. The programme was started with the welcome address by Dr. B.K Das, Director, ICAR-CIFRI. He mentioned that FPCs are designed to group small-scale producers, particularly the small and marginal farmers, in order to protect their interests and inland fisheries may can be a fruitful venture for them to get assured return on investment. Twelve farmers including three women from various FPCs were given award for their outstanding performance in the agrarian field. Dr. M.V Rao addressed the audience and encouraged them, also motivated the farmers to work in FPC actively as the FPCs are having better power to negotiate. Dr. B.K Chand encouraged the farmer to up fish farming as one of the component in the FPC or to integrate it with other component.
In the first technical session Dr. B.K Das gave a presentation on Inland fisheries Management. Dr. M.A Hassan, HoD,ICAR-CIFRI also gave idea about fish feed production with locally available material. Dr. Arun Pandit,I/C FEU also orient the audience about FPC. In the next technical session a team from State Bank of India discussed about the financial aspect and loan taking procedures. Experts from National Agriculture Market (e-NAM), Regulated marketing, Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises, Neotia University were present in the meet and share their experiences and views. Interaction sessions were organized after each session. A total of 180 farmers including 43 women participated in the programme from 44 FPCs in West Bengal.