post news network
Bhubaneswar, Oct 10: The state government Tuesday claimed the seafood export from Orissa has recorded 17 per cent growth and the total fish production of the state went up by 18 per cent in 2016-17 fiscal.
Officials of the state government revealed this after a review meeting of the fisheries & animal resource department chaired by Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi at the secretariat here.
F&ARD secretary Vishal Gagan said the total seafood export in 2015-16 was 35,630 tonne which increased to 41,828 tonne in 2016-17 recording an increase of 17 per cent.
In terms of value, the export increased by 23 per cent with a total turnover of around ` 2,205 crore, the secretary said.
Likewise, he said, the total fish production in the state in 2016-17 also increased by 18 per cent over the last year crossing the 6.14 lakh tonne mark. Out of this, inland fish production was around 3,93,730 tonne, brackish water production was 67,359 tonne and marine fish production was around 1,53,102 tonne.
The area under aquaculture increased to 10,130 hectares showing an increase of around 4 per cent over the last year.
Meanwhile, the Chief Secretary directed the department to put in modern facilities at landing harbours. Padhi further directed officials to functionalize all the facilities including auctioning and trading in the already developed harbours like Dhamara.
The department was also advised to develop fishery support activities and hatcheries in the harbour region so that more and more farmers take up aquaculture.
Chief Secretary also directed fixing Distress Alert Transmitters (DATs) in all motorized boats and to put in place an appropriate monitoring system of DAT signals in convergence with coast guard.
The F&ARD secretary said 22,289 fishing boats of different types such as non-motorized, motorized and mechanized were registered online up to last year. In the current year as of September 30, 1,620 boats were registered.
As of now, around 93 per cent of the fishing boats have been colour coded. The meeting decided to fix DAT machines in all motorised boats and the owners of the mechanised boats have been asked to fix DAT machines in their boats within a month.
Meanwhile, the progress of the establishment of a diary plant at Arilo under Baranga Tahasil was reviewed in the meeting. As of now, 51 acres in the mauza has been allotted in favour of OMFED and the possession has also been given.
The project would be implanted with NABARD support, officials said, adding, the project was put to open tender with a composite bid including civil, mechanisation and automation works. Since no bidder has come forward, it was decided to explore alternative possibilities for quick implementation of the project.
