RAMANATHAPURAM: The Union Minister of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying, George Kurian has said that the designation of the Mandapam Regional Centre of ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) as a Centre of Excellence (CoE) will significantly boost the seaweed cultivation in India.
He was speaking after inaugurating the CoE at CMFRI’s Mandapam campus on Thursday. The Govt. of India had recently designated ICAR-CMFRI Mandapam as the Centre of Excellence for the holistic development and promotion of Seaweed culture in the country.
Emphasising the crucial role of ICAR-CMFRI in advancing marine fisheries and mariculture in the nation, the Minister said that this new development will further contribute to the comprehensive growth of the fisheries sector.
The Minister also inaugurated the plantlet production unit for seaweed established at the Mandapam Centre under the CoE, followed by visit to the various facilities at the centre such as Seaweed Plantlet Production Unit, Marine hatchery complex, National Marine Fish Brood bank, Recirculatory Aquaculture System (RAS), Sea cage farm, Green Tiger shrimp hatchery established under the PMMSY scheme, Marine Biodiversity Museum and Marine Aquarium.
During his interaction with fishers and fish farmers, Minister Kurian highlighted the remarkable increase in India’s fish production over the past decade, from 95.79 lakh tons to 175.45 lakh tons. He also mentioned the government’s efforts to improve the sector through various schemes.
“Under the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY), the Union Department of Fisheries, Govt of India distributed 22 Insulated vehicles in Ramanathapuram district alone to maintain cold chain facilities for quality maintenance of fishes up to marketing with a subsidy of 147.94 lakh”, the Minister said.
“To enhance income and promote sustainable aquaculture, the government has introduced open sea cage farming for high-value fish species like seabass and cobia in the district. A subsidy of 9.91 lakh is provided under this scheme. To improve the efficiency and safety of traditional fishermen, the government is replacing wooden catamarans with FRP boats. 29 beneficiaries have already received these boats with a subsidy of Rs.58.18 lakh”, Minister George Kurian added.
CMFRI Director Dr. Grinson George presided over the function. Appreciating the efforts of the Union Fisheries Department for the development of the mariculture sector, Dr. George described the future plans of having a strong collaboration with the ICAR-National Research Centre for Banana, Thiruchirapalli in seaweed tissue culture programmes.
More than 150 fishers, fish farmers and seaweed farmers from Ramanathapuram and Pudukottai districts of Tamil Nadu attended the interactive meeting. They shared their experiences in seaweed farming and sea cage farming and also thanked the government of India, ICAR-CMFRI and Tamil Nadu State Fisheries Department for the various schemes and development initiatives being implemented for the sector.
They flagged some issues and their grievances to the Minister for which the Minister assured support to resolve the same.
Dr. K. Vinod, Principal Scientist & Head, Mandapam RC of ICAR-CMFRI and Dr. B. Johnson, Senior Scientist, Mandapam RC of ICAR-CMFRI spoke on the occasion.
Dr. R. Selvarajan, Director, NRC Banana and Dr. Dileep Kumar, Chairman, Research Advisory Committee (RAC) of ICAR-CMFRI attended the function.
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