Inland fish farming on the rise in Haryana

Chandigarh, Aug 16 (UNI) In inland fish farming, Haryana ranks second in the country in per hectare fish production.

A spokesman for the Fisheries Department today said the fish production growth rate in Haryana had now touched to 14.4 per cent as compared to 9.4 per cent in the year 2005.

''At national level the fish production growth rate was eight per cent,'' he added.

The state government, he said, had taken several steps to benefit the farmers engaged in fish farming which had resulted in giving a major fillip to fisheries in the state.

In a major step to further promote pisciculture, the state government had submitted a project 'Development of Aquaculture and Post Harvest Infrastructure' to Japan Government as grant-in-aid amounting to over Rs 73 crore, he said.

To provide better marketing facilities to fish farmers of the state, two ultra modern new fish markets were being set up at Gurgaon and Bahadurgarh with the total cost of Rs 84.64 lakh, he added.

In order to increase the income of fish farmers, he said, the cost of cultivation was brought down by reducing the electricity tariff from Rs 4.29 to Rs two per unit for fish culture. The VAT on fish feed and fish meal had been waived off.

He said, in order to increase the fish productivity, an area of 7795 acre water logged and saline affected land was converted into fish culture pond during the last two years for utilising the untapped water resources to benefit fish farmers. As many as 20 Fish Health Care Centres, one in each district, and 14 Aquatic Poly Clinics at each Government Fish Seed Farm and one Diagnostic Lab had been established.

UNI