Fisheries university mooted in state

BHUBANESHWAR: To tap pisciculture potential of Odisha, the state government is planning to set up an institute namely Odisha University of Fisheries and Aquaculture.
"It would be a state-of-the-art institute for research for development of fisheries and aquaculture. We would come up with a concrete proposal of the university, its location, financial implications and courses to be offered within next six months," said fisheries and animal resources development secretary Bishnupada Sethi emerging out of a meeting headed by chief secretary A P Padhi on Thursday.
During the meeting, the chief secretary directed the department to focus on short and medium-term strategies for boosting the farmers' income. Padhi also asked the department to develop inland fishery as another source of income for a large number of farmer families in rural areas. The proposed university would address requirements like delivering professional courses, creating technical manpower, innovating technical know-how, skilling the farmers through direct exposure and designing the best practices. The university would create a technical and scientific network connecting individual farmers, organizations and institutes, official sources said.
According to the sources, Odisha, at present, contributes to 5% of the fish production in the country and 17% of the value of Indian maritime product export.
Odisha has the resources like 480 km of coastline along with 24,000 square km of area within continental shelf. Fresh water resources is estimated around 6.79 lakh hectares comprising of 1.28 lakh hectares of ponds, two lakh hectares of reservoirs, 1.80 lakh hectares of lakes and swamps and 1.71 lakh hectares of rivers and canals. Brackish water resources are around 4.18 lakh hectares. With these resources, inland fishery and fresh water aquaculture can be taken to a new high through scientific research, Sethi said.
The proposed university would focus on direct linkage with farmers, official sources said. The state government would introduce a bill in the assembly for setting up of the institute.