The Union minister was speaking at ASSOCHAM’s Virtual Conference on Fisheries & Aquaculture
Union Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Parshottam Rupala recently addressed the fisheries and aquaculture industry at ASSOCHAM’s Virtual Conference on Fisheries & Aquaculture. The minister said that the best practices are being involved and executed by the Union government in the revival of the economy in this sector.
The fisheries sector has a vast domestic market to capture in India. Adding to this, the minister said, “PMMSY was launched by the Government of India last year, is now benefitting the fishers of India at large. A lot of sub-schemes are covered under PMMSY’s vast umbrella which is directly or indirectly benefitting the fishers. These schemes are aligned to double the exports, double the production of fish and hence doubling the fisher’s income.”
He further added that in the coming time not only the sector will experience an upthrust but also will generate employment for more than 50 lakh people across the nation. Towards the end, the minister assured all possible support from the Government of India to the fishers of the nation in uplifting and reviving the sector.
This discussion was held in a virtual conference, organised by the ASSOCHAM on Fisheries and Aquaculture Industry with a theme ’Strategic roadmap towards enabling Blue Revolution & Economic Growth.’
“The Marine Products Exports Development Authority (MPEDA) is also helping to revive the sector by taking various timely measures. It is the prime concern of MPEDA to provide unique solutions to the problems faced by the marine industry bodies, ensuring smooth and proper operation of the sector along with maintaining quality and implemented various programmes to meet the required concerns regarding food safety,” said KS Srinivas, Chairman, MPEDA.
Giving more technical insight about the PMMSY & other fisheries-related schemes, Sagar Mehra, Joint Secretary, Department of Fisheries, said, “The strategy along with the concerted and collaborative efforts between the stakeholders and government is required to achieve ambitious targets under the scheme. These targets are Rs 1,00,000 crore fisheries export, additional 70 lakh tonnes fish production, and generation of 55 lakh employment in the years to come.”
On behalf of ASSOCHAM, Chintan Thaker, Chairman, ASSOCHAM Gujarat Council, welcomed all the esteemed guest speakers that were present from across the nation. Thaker assured the timely cooperation and support of ASSOCHAM in coming up for the revival of the sector.
Other eminent speakers of the session, representing the interest of industry bodies were Dr Manoj M Sharma, Director, Mayank Aquaculture, Amit Salunkhe, Chief Alliance Officer, Aqua Connect and Dhaval Raval, Chairman – Agriculture & Food Processing Committee, ASSOCHAM Gujarat Council along with Dr Venkatesh Iyer, Editor in Chief, The SME India as a moderator for the session.
The session was supported by NABARD and Gujarat State Biotechnology Mission and Dept of Science & Technology, Government of Gujarat.
