Cage Fish Culture in Hirakud Reservoir would increase the freshwater fish production, says Chief Secretary

Bhubaneswar: Cage Fish Culture is a successful model in the Hirakud Reservoir and it will soon increase the freshwater fish production in the state said Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mohapatra.

Mohapatra was on a field visit to Hirakud and reviewed the fish farming situation in the cages set up in the reservoir. He even interacted with the fishermen, entrepreneurs, and officials of the Department of Fishery and Animal Resources Development.

Appreciating the progress of the fish breeding, Mohapatra directed the officials to set up infrastructure like Common Facility Center, the laboratory and the floating jetty for fishing.

Mohapatra assured that the government would provide the necessary infrastructure and cooperation for the development of cage fish culture.

While Common Facility Center would help farmers can classify, weigh, and marketing of fish. The Fisheries Research Laboratory would help to monitor aquatic health and environmental impact. Fishermen can check the health of the fish growing in the cage and take the necessary steps to produce quality products.

Chief Secretary further directed the officials to limit the cage culture to 1 percent of the area above the reservoir.

Deputy Director of Fisheries and Livestock Development Biraja Prakash Dwibedi informed that 32 cage fishing zones and 625 sub-zones have been identified in areas within limits of national guidelines. Of these, 101 sub-zones have been leased to entrepreneurs selected on the basis of investment interest.

As of now, 71 entrepreneurs have started their operation after signing a MoU with the department. Cage installation has been completed in 30 sub-zones.

A total of 1875 circular cages of 16 mt diameters and 5 mt depth, or 15000 rectangular cages can be installed on the reservoir which would with production potential of more than 45,000 metric ton of fish.