CIFRI Awards
ICAR-Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute has organized two 02 awareness programs on fish disease surveillance and health management under the NSPAAD phase-II project funded by Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY). The program was conducted at 4 No Bheri and Sardar Bheri, Kolkata, West Bengal on the 16th and 17th of April 2024, respectively.
At 4 No Bheri, a total of 32 farmers including 14 women and 18 men participated in the programme, while at Sardar Bheri 48 farmers including 18 women and 30 men participated in the programme. The program was led by Dr. B.K. Das, Director, ICAR-CIFRI addressed the gathering and enlightened the fishers on several areas such as sustainable fish farming, disease and health management of fish, and the application of drone-based technology for disease management in East Kolkata Wetlands by spraying liquid medicine to reduce time and manpower. He introduced a newly developed Report Fish disease application to the fishers on the importance of early fish diagnosis to avoid mortality and production loss in the aquaculture system. He shared a list of important chemicals and probiotics medicines for prophylactic and disease control measures. Later, Dr. S. Samanta, HoD, FRAI Division, ICAR-CIFRI addressed the gathering and motivated the farmers on ecosystem management of the wetland area and better management practices in the fish production system. He also emphasized future collaborations between ICAR-CIFRI and East Kolkata Wetland fishers for effective fisheries and ecosystem management. Dr. Chayna Jana interacted with fishers and highlighted the role of drone-based technology in fisheries and ecosystem management. The technology could be effectively used to map different wetlands of the regions and apply medicine/ feed when necessary in a very short span of time. Dr. Vikash Kumar sensitized the fishers about the sewage-fed fisheries and the outbreak of various diseases in fish. He also provided various management options to control diseases in fish. 
Later, the ICAR-CIFRI team collected water, sediment and fish samples from the sewage canal, inlet, midpoint and outlet area of Bheri and brought them to the laboratory for further analysis. Pamphlets in both English and Bengali were prepared on disease identification and their possible management measures and distributed among the participants to sensitize the fishers to better management of their fish farms. The program was coordinated by Mr. Asim Kumar Jana and the research scholars of the NSPAAD Phase II project namely Souvik Dhar and Anupam Adhikari with great efficiency.
