বাংলায় পড়ুন
At the first ever CII Fisheries Conclave on August 28, state fisheries minister Chandra Nath Sinha said that West Bengal was well on course of meeting its target fish production of 18.5 lakh metric tonnes this year.
“We have set a fish production target of 18.5 lakh metric tonnes this year. Last year we produced about 17.4 lakh metric tonnes. Now with demand for fishes growing, we are raising our target. We are confident that the target we have set this year will be met,” Sinha said at the conclave.
He said that shrimp exports from Bengal amounted to around 70,000 tonnes, earning about Rs 8,000 crore a year and that shrimp farming utilised only 15 per cent of brackish-water resource of the state.
Talking about Bengal’s potential in pisciculture he said, “Our state has numerous water bodies, which is about 8-10 times of the leading fish-producing states such as Andhra Pradesh. Bengal is the only state which has a separate policy for the fisheries sector. The focus of our government is to maximise fish production through technologies, adding water bodies under aquafarming, scientific feeding and improved managerial practices.”
Dr Ravi Inder Singh, principal secretary, West Bengal fisheries department who was also present at the event said Bengal’s share of the country's fish seed production was around 40 per cent. “It is growing exponentially,” Singh said.
Among the stakeholders who partook in the conclave was Rajarshi Banerji, West Bengal region president of Seafood Exporters Association of India. Pointing out some of the areas of concern for the business he said that small land holding, high electricity tariff and expensive lease-rent structure were major impediments in the expansion of shrimp production in the state and those raised cost of production. “The cost of shrimp production in West Bengal is Rs 220-240 a kg while the same in Andhra Pradesh is Rs 180 a kg. The margin of our shrimp cultivators and exporters get squeezed substantially, when the prices fall in the international market," Banerji said
