Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has directed the fisheries department to tap the pisciculture potential in distressed districts of Vidarbha to provide an alternate source of income to farmers.
The concept of “fish farming” comes in the wake of a potential market that can generate revenue for farmers along with traditional farming of cotton in Washim, Yavatmal, Amravati and Bhandara.
The government indicated that any farmer demanding farm pond would be accorded highest priority under the “jalyukta shivar yojna”; Rs 2,500 crore between 2016-17 and 2018-19 has been earmarked for the farm ponds essentially aimed at creating water bodies. However, farmers will be encouraged to take up fish culture.
Maharashtra Fisheries Development Corporation and Muncipal Corporation of Amravati signed an MoU for developing two fish markets at Badnera and Amravati for which Rs 38.85 crore has been allocated.
A senior secretary in the department of fisheries said, “When it comes to promoting fishing, the region naturally comes to mind and gets highest priority in Konkan and parts of western Maharashtra. We have never considered Vidarbha for promoting fishing.”
Although Vidarbha has its distinct fish/prawns variety it has been dismissed as secondary sector. The official said, “Unfortunately, fresh water fish/prawns of Vidarbha have not been marketed aggressively.”
A villager in district Pauni (Wardha), Rupesh Shirsekar said, “A fresh catch of good variety can easily fetch Rs 250 to 450 per kg.”
The villagers often undersell as they don’t have storage capacity and are not exposed to robust markets outside their villages.
Sources disclosed that multiple irrigation projects coupled with private contractors entering the fishing sector disoriented rural farmers. The high pollution due to power plants are cited among reasons that discourage villagers from pisciculture. Wardha, Gondia, Bhandara, Chandrapur to Gadchiroli remain a potential fishing stretch.
By Shubhangi Khapre
SOURCE: INDIAN EXPRESS