Fibre boats for Manipur fishers

Imphal, Jul 20 (UNI) A woman fishing with a net without any rope on a small boat is a common sight at Loktak lake, one of the biggest fresh water lakes in the country at Moirang, about 45 kms from here.

A large number of people live on the lake on floating houses.

Faced with scarcity of wood to make boats and high cost of wood, the fishers face the twin dilemma of non availability of boats and gradual shallowing of the lake due to human interference.

Fibre Reinforce Plastic (FRP) boats jointly produced by Central Institute of Fisheries Technology, Kochi and Fisheries department of Manipur has been introduced here.

Minister of Fisheries N Mangi distributed the boats to fishers at Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) complex at Lamphelpat at a subsidised rate. The boats were priced at about Rs 18,000 and Rs 17,000 but were distributed at Rs 8000 and Rs 7000.

He assured that the boats will last for about 30 years without any trouble.

Fishery department officials said the Central Institute of Fisheries Technology (CIFT) under the ICAR initiative has been giving thrust to the development of fisheries sector in the country.

CIFT has successfully conducted Need Assessment Surveys for all the seven North Eastern states.

Fibre Reinforce plastics(FRP) is a versatile engineering material and its advantages in strength, durability, flexibility for shaping and light weight are widely exploited in engineering design and applications, officials added. Developing improved boat designs was started in 2004.

At least 16 boat builders and fisheries officials of Asom were trained in 2005 and a new mechanised fishing vessel design for fast flowing Brahmaputra River was produced.

Officials added CIFT is envisaging an advanced short-term training course for those who have been trained under the programme and will take up fabrication as a job or as a business.

UNI NS SP/SRC1552