IMPHAL, December 27: Despite the Fishery department’s endeavor to maximize fish production in the state, there still is an enormous gap in production and demand. The state fish farmers have not been able to produce enough due to lack of knowledge of scientific fish culture, according to a concerned official of the department.
The matter has been notified to the principal secretary of Commerce and Industries by the commissioner of Fisheries, Y Jugindro Singh, the official informed.
He has mentioned that almost the entire state population consume fish.
Despite the earnest effort of the department of Fisheries to increase production in the State, there is still a huge gap between supply and demand; lack of knowledge of scientific fish rearing is a major impediment in intensive aquaculture as well as want of financial resources, he stated.
It is stated that the requirement of fish in the State is around 35,000 tonnes at the rate of 13 kg/ per capita annual consumption.
However, the production is around 24,000 tonnes only, the balance is met by fish brought from other states like Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam etc, informed a source.
The deficit in production is to be met by the concerned department by 2016-2017 by implementing various schemes and to make the state self-sufficient in fish production, said the source.
The commissioner has also sought co-operation of the state government authorities for importing fresh and dried fish from Myanmar to tide over the present deficit in fish production. It was also proposed to include fish as an item of import and export between India and Myanmar.
