Bhubaneswar: The ICAR-Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture in association with Association of Aquaculturists (AoA) organized 1st National Hindi Conference on “Sustainable Aquaculture for Atmanirbhar Bharat” during 23-24 September 2022 at its Kausalyaganga campus.
The conference had five themes namely (1) Sustainable Aquaculture System; (2) Fish Nutrition; (3) Fish Genetics and Biotechnology (4) Fish Health Management and (5) Socio-economics and livelihood.
The programme was inaugurated by the chief guest, Dr. J.K. Jena, Deputy Director General (Fisheries Science), ICAR. He emphasized on the importance of fisheries sector in Indian agricultural and rural economy. He highlighted that the inland fisheries is contributing more than 65% to the fisheries basket of the country. He expressed his concerns over the production of quality fish and making it affordable to all the cross sections of the society. He also stressed that the health of aquatic ecosystems and their biotic communities should be maintained properly for the sustainable fisheries. He also called for more collaborative works among the researchers to produce useful products/technologies for the benefit of stakeholders in aquaculture.
The Chief Guest, Prof. P. K. Roul, Vice-chancellor, OUAT, Odisha, emphasized on research values and team spirit. Furthermore, he flagged the necessity of collaborative research and development initiatives in fisheries and aquaculture between different organization for achieving the desirable outcomes in field level.
Dr. B.P. Mohanty, Assistant Director General (Inland Fisheries), ICAR, was the guest of honour. He thanked the institute and the organizing committee for his long association with ICAR-CIFA. Dr. Mohanty stressed on to bring out a farmer friendly journal in Hindi to reach more aquafarmers in the country. He also suggested to initiate a mega research and development programme in ornamental fisheries.
The other guest of honour, Dr. B. K. Das, Director, ICAR-CIFRI, Barrackpore & President, PFGF, Mumbai stressed that this conference will deal with the important fisheries and aquaculture related topics. He briefed about the inland fisheries’ status in the country. He outlined about the important ecosystem health topics such as, climate change, invasive species, connectivity, wetlands, biodiversity and all aspects of aquatic pollution, restoration and management etc. in India.
At the beginning Dr. S. K. Swain, Director, ICAR-CIFA highlighted that last three and a half decades of devoted research, the institute has contributed significantly toward development for breeding and culture of economically important fish and shellfish, FRP portable hatchery, feeds for different life stages of fish, disease diagnostics kits, improved rohu Jayanti, CIFABROODTM, CIFA GI scampi and other useful technologies for the farmers. Dr. Swain also inscribed about Matsya Setu app having user base of 32000 and its rapid circulation. He also described how ICAR-CIFA is dedicated to its stakeholders across the country through flagship schemes under Government of India like SCSP, STC and NEH.
Dr. Shailesh Saurabh, Secretary, AoA and team made the arrangements for the conference.
Ms Kalinga