More than two-thirds of the total fish production in India comes from inland fisheries. However, the sector faces many constraints in the country, most of which can be alleviated by adopting the right policies. “The potential of aquaculture in India is grossly untapped. We can increase the production of small reservoirs to much larger levels and enhance employment generation also in the process. Given India’s socioeconomic realities, policymakers need to consider these systems from the livelihood and productivity perspective,” this was the openion of the panalists at the webinar on Challenges, Opportunities and Future of Inland Fisheries organised jointly by the Maharashtra Economic Development Council (MEDC) and the Agrovision Foundation.

 

 

The panelists at the meeting included Sagar Mehra, Joint Secretary, Inland Fisheries and Administration, Department of Fisheries, GoI, Dr B K Das, Director – ICAR –Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute (CIFRI), Dr Ravishankar C N, Director, ICAR – Central Institute of Fisheries Technology (CIFT), Maroti Upare, Ex General Manager, NABARD and Mahesh Deovre, Additional Commissioner, (Inland Fisheries), Department of Fisheries, GoM. The broad consensus was that it is now time for us to cultivate entrepreneurship models in different subsectors of this activity, which would give an opportunity to the youth of the country to grow and expand their horizons. There is also a need to clearly identify the market and prospective consumers to maximise the sector’s export potential.

 

 

Earlier, delivering the welcome address, Ravindra Boratkar, President, MEDC and Agrovision Foundation, said that the development of the inland fisheries sector depends upon the adoption of new technology. He introduced the distinguished panel and said that with such experts leading the discussion in the webinar, the issues facing the sector would be brought out clearly, and their resolution facilitated. He thanked all the panelists for sparing their valuable

time to discuss this socioeconomically important issue on a public platform. Vibha Bhatia, moderated the meeting.