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Workshop held for fish entrepreneurs and investors under PMMSY held in Guwahati

BNE News Desk


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India made about 60 billion Indian rupees in gross valued added from fish products in fishing and aquaculture sector across India in fiscal year 2019. The fishery sector is considered as an important department and fishery is considered as an important economic activity in the socio-economic context in the state of Assam. More than 90 per cent of people of Assam consider fish in their daily meal leading to an ever increasing demand for fish. It has immense scope for employment generation especially in the rural areas through fish production and its related activities.

According to the fishery department of Government of Assam the state of Assam is richly endowed with abundant natural resources including aquatic resources. The state is endowed with vast fishery resources in the form of ponds, derelict water bodies, beels, reservoirs, etc. covering about 2.86 lakhs ha. In addition to this, the two major river systems, namely, the Brahmaputra and Barak covering 4820 km along with 53 tributaries have formed the back bone of the state.

The contribution of Fishery Sector to the State Gross Domestic Product (SGDP) is Rs. 472119 lakh with a growth rate of 4.68 percent as per quick estimate of 2015-16 (Ref: Economic Survey, Assam 2016-17).

In such a situation, there is vast anticipation to develop pisciculture in state. By pisciculture, one means commercial breeding of fish. It is a rational production of fish in a limited aquatic environment where agricultural and animal husbandry principles are applicable.

Keeping in view the importance of fishery the National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB), Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying had organized an one day workshop with bankers in eastern and northeastern states on Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund (FIDF) and Entrepreneurship model under PMMSY today at the Assam Administrative Staff College, Khanapara, Guwahati.

In the inaugural session, Executive Director, NDFB, M. Arul Bosco Prakash and Chief General Manager, NABARD Pradeep Mehrotra had discussed about the sanctions that the government had accorded for the upcoming projects.

The workshop was attended by 70 participants among higher officials from 15 scheduled banks and 7 Regional Rural Banks of eastern and north-eastern region, officials from 8 state fisheries department (Orissa, Meghalaya, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura and Mizoram), entrepreneurs and other stakeholder, an official release said.

The Government of India has launched the FIDF scheme to create fisheries infrastructures both in the marine and inland fisheries sector with an aim to increase fish production in the country. The scheme was launched in 2018 to be implemented in five years FY2018-19 to FY2022-23. The Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) was launched in 2020 by the Prime Minister with a budget of over Rs 20,050 crore for a period of five years. PMMSY aims to achieve fish production of 22 MMT by 2024-25 and to create an additional employment opportunity for about 55 lakh people through this sector.

The workshop aimed to focus on the challenges that the entrepreneurs and private entrepreneurs were facing in accessing bank finance, the procedure of bank loan sanction and repayments, and the interest the interest subvention granted, the participation of the co-operative sector and the role played by the State and Union Territories, etc.

The Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) was launched in 2020 by the Prime Minister with a budget of over Rs 20,050 crore for a period of five years. The scheme aims to achieve fish production of 22 MMT by 2024-25 and to create an additional employment opportunity for about 55 lakh people through this sector.

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BNE News Desk