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HomePosts Tagged "Ministry of Fisheries"
Acquaculture, AgroPolicy, India

The total fish production in the North- Eastern States increased from 4.03 lakh tonnes in 2014-15 to highest production of 6.04 lakh tonnes during FY 2022-23.

The Inland fish production in North- Eastern States recorded an average annual growth rate of 5.38 per cent during last nine years i.e. from 2014-15 to 2022-23. The total fish production in the North- Eastern States increased from 4.03 lakh tonnes in 2014-15 to highest production of 6.04 lakh tonnes during FY 2022-23.

Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying implemented Blue Revolution, Centrally Sponsored Scheme from 2015-16 to 2019-20 for development of fisheries and aquaculture in the country and the project worth Rs 391.95 crore were sanctioned for North- Eastern States. To consolidates the success and achievements of Blue Revolution, in the year 2020-21, the Government of India launched another flagship schemes namely Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) with an investment of Rs 20,050 crores for a period of 5 years with effect from Financial Year 2020-21 to 2024-25 for holistic development of fisheries and aquaculture.

 PMMSY aims to enhance the fish production through establishment of new freshwater finfish hatcheries, construction of rearing ponds, grow-out ponds with inputs, biofloc ponds, Re-circulatory Aquaculture System (RAS), ornamental fish rearing unit, providing boats and nets for traditional fishermen etc. Minimum 10 per cent of the annual allocation under the scheme has been earmarked for North Eastern Region.

Under PMMSY, total projects with outlay of Rs 1391.62 crore have been approved for NER States during 2020-21 to 2023-24 (till date).

Besides, to promote easy access to credit for aqua-culture farmers, fish farms and fishing activities the Government of India in 2018-19 extended the facility of Kisan Credit Card (KCC) to fisher and fish farmers to help them meet their working capital needs. So far, a total of 1, 70, 674 KCC with a loan amount of Rs. 1893.43 crore have been issued including 16,870 KCC in NER.

This information was given by Parshottam Rupala, Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying in a written reply in Lok Sabha

The total fish production in the North-

Animal Health, Live Stock, Poultry

A memorandum to the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying, pointed out that India’s 34.60 MMT annual maize production is insufficient to meet the requirements of the poultry industry as well as the nation’s food security

The All India Poultry Breeder Association (AIPBA) Delhi has written to the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying to allow duty-free maize imports to enable the poultry industry to meet its future requirements.

The current basic import duty on maize stands at 50 per cent.

Citing concerns over the rising maize consumption in ethanol production, the All India Poultry Breeder Association (AIPBA), in a memorandum to the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying, pointed out that India’s 34.60 MMT annual maize production is insufficient to meet the requirements of the poultry industry as well as nation’s food security.

“As per estimates of the Indian Institute of Millets Research, the Poultry and Livestock industry consumes more than 60 per cent of the country’s maize production. In this context, the government’s ambitious plan to generate half of the ethanol from maize by 2025-26 may have some serious implications for sectors like poultry and livestock. Diverting such a significant chunk of current maize production to ethanol could impact their access to essential feedstock, creating a severe demand-supply gap in the coming years,” said the memorandum submitted to the government by the All India Poultry Breeder Association under the chairmanship of Bahadur Ali who is also the Managing Director of IB Group.

Over the last decade, maize production growth has been at 4.5 per cent, while the poultry industry has experienced a growth of 8-9 per cent. This disparity highlights the anticipated maize shortage for the poultry industry, particularly in the wake of the government’s plan to promote maize for ethanol in a big way.

“Addressing the rising demand for maize in both livestock feed and other industries presents two options: importing maize or increasing domestic production. However, significant short-term increases in domestic output are deemed improbable. Therefore, importing maize from other countries emerges as the most viable solution to meet the immediate demand,” the association stated in its memorandum to the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying.

Ethanol’s growing thirst for maize has also pushed prices skyward, posing a major challenge for Indian poultry farmers. With maize prices hovering around Rs 22-23 per kg across India, poultry farmers are grappling with unsustainable costs. The burden is expected to intensify further by February 2024, which may adversely impact the poultry industry.

A memorandum to the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal

Acquaculture, AgroPolicy, India, Interaction, Live Stock

Tunas alone contributing an estimated annual value of trade of US$41 billion in 2018.

The Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying, GoI is organizing the 19th Working Party on Data Collection and Statistics (WPDCS19) of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) from 28th November to 2nd December 2023. The meeting inaugurated at Hotel St. Regis, Mumbai, Maharashtra.

This is an important meeting organized by the IOTC and hosted by Department of Fisheries, GoI, which will bring together the renowned Scientists and Experts in the field of Tuna fisheries from all around the world.  Joint Secretary, Dept. of Fisheries, GoI, Neetu Kumari Prasad and Commissioner of Fisheries, Govt of Maharashtra, Atul Patne was also present during the event.

Tunas and other large pelagic species, such as billfishes, sharks, and rays, hold immense economic significance, with tunas alone contributing an estimated annual value of trade of US$41 billion (in 2018). The international scope of these species necessitates collaborative efforts for improved management and conservation, given their susceptibility to overfishing by multinational fisheries.

There were participants from countries namely, Indonesia, France, Spain, other countries of the European Union (EU), Seychelles, Tanzania, Iran, Thailand, Japan, Sri Lanka, Oman and India attending the meeting in person. Besides, many participants from various other countries, IOTC and scientific organizations are attending the meeting in Virtual Mode as well.

The scientist will brainstorm and analyse the existing scientific methods adopted by various countries in data collection, compilation, and reporting to IOTC for the purpose of resource assessments and will come out with advanced and simplified methods of data collection and statistics in the Indian Ocean Region. This meeting will be followed by the main Scientific Committee meeting of the IOTC to be held at the same venue during 4th – 8th December 2023 which will consider the recommendations of the WPDCS and various other working parties for scientific recommendations relating to sustainable management of tuna and tuna like species in the Indian Ocean. 

Tunas alone contributing an estimated annual value

AgroPolicy, Animal Health, Finance, India, Live Stock

The fund aims to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response capacities at national, regional, and global levels, focusing on low- and middle-income countries.

The G20 Pandemic Fund has approved the $25 million proposal submitted by the Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying (DAHD), Government of India on “Animal Health Security Strengthening in India for Pandemic Preparedness and Response”. Established under Indonesia’s G20 Presidency, the Pandemic Fund finances critical investments to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response capacities at national, regional, and global levels, focusing on low- and middle-income countries.

The Pandemic Fund received around 350 Expressions of Interest (EoI) and 180 full proposals in the first call with grant requests totalling more than $2.5 billion against an envelope of only $338 million. The Pandemic Fund’s Governing Board has approved 19 grants under its first round of funding allocations aimed to boost resilience to future pandemics in 37 countries across six regions on 20th July 2023.

The major interventions under the proposal are strengthening and integrating disease surveillance and early warning system, upgrading, and expanding the laboratory network, improving the inter-operable data systems and building capacity for data analytics for risk analysis and risk communication, strengthening health security for transboundary animal diseases and India’s role in regional cooperation through cross border collaboration.

The Pandemic Fund will not only bring additional, dedicated resources for pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response. It will also incentivize increased investments, enhance coordination among partners, and serve as a platform for advocacy. The impact of the project would be to reduce the risk that a pathogen will emerge from animals (domesticated and wildlife) to be transmitted into the human population endangering the health, nutritional security, and livelihoods of vulnerable populations. The project will be implemented in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) as the lead implementing entity with The World Bank and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

The fund aims to strengthen pandemic prevention,

AgroPolicy, Animal Health, Finance, India, Live Stock, Schemes - Govt

Scheme to act as a key enabler and risk mitigation measure for lending institutions and enabling collateral free funding to livestock sector.

Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying is implementing the Credit Guarantee Scheme under Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund (AHIDF) to strengthen credit delivery system and facilitate smooth flow of credit to the Micro, Small & Medium Enterprise (MSMEs) engaged in Livestock sector without hassles of collateral security. For operationalizing the scheme, DAHD has established a Credit Guarantee fund Trust of Rs 750.00 crores, which will provide credit guarantee coverage up to 25 per cent of the credit facilities extended to the MSMEs by the eligible lending institutions.

The credit guarantee scheme facilitates access to finance for un-served and under-served livestock sector, making availability of financial assistance from lenders to mainly first-generation entrepreneurs and under privileged section of society, who lack collateral security for supporting their ventures.

The main objective of the Credit Guarantee Scheme is that the lender should give importance to project viability and secure the credit facility purely on the basis primary security of the assets financed.

The establishment of credit guarantee fund trust was approved under the Prime Minister’s AtmaNirbhar Bharat Abhiyan stimulus package of Rs.15000 crores“ Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund” (AHIDF) for incentivizing investments by individual entrepreneurs, private companies, MSMEs, Farmers Producers Organizations (FPOs) and Section 8 companies to establish (i) the dairy processing and value addition infrastructure, (ii) meat processing and value addition infrastructure, (iii) Animal Feed Plant, (iv) Breed Improvement technology and Breed Multiplication Farm (v) Animal Waste to Wealth Management (Agri Waste Management) and (vi) Setting up of Veterinary Vaccine and Drugs Manufacturing facilities.

One of the key features of the AHIDF scheme is the establishment of a Credit Guarantee Fund Trust of Rs. 750.00 Crores. DAHD has formed a trust with NABSanrakshan Trustee Company Private Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of NABARD for the establishment of a Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for extending the credit guarantee to Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises under AHIDF scheme. This fund trust established in March 2021 is the Nation’s first ever fund trust under Credit guarantee scheme of AHIDF in the agriculture and Animal Husbandry sector and is a path-breaking initiative taken by DAHD which would exponentially increase the number of MSME units getting benefits of AHIDF scheme and strengthen the ecosystem for the collateral-free credit from the banks.

The credit guarantee portal has been developed as a rule based B2B portal and implemented the enrolment of eligible lending institutions under Credit Guarantee Scheme, issuance/renewal of credit guarantee Cover and settlement of claims.

Notably, the initiative of credit guarantee scheme taken by DAHD is expected to greatly increase the participation of MSMEs engaged in livestock sector leading to increased flow of credit to the sector and strengthen the MSMEs to boost the overall rural economy through strengthening the Livestock sector which is of one of the most potential sectors seeking development.

Scheme to act as a key enabler

Acquaculture, AgroPolicy

The webinar was intended to open a forum to initiate a dialogue about the crucial role of fisheries cooperatives in bringing out prosperity in the lives of fish farmers.

The Department of Fisheries (DoF), Ministry of Fisheries, Animal husbandry & Dairying, organized a webinar on “Potential & Role of Fisheries Cooperatives”. This was the 14th webinar organized by the department in an effort to celebrate the ongoing Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, marking 75 years of India’s independence.

The event was presided over by Jatindra Nath Swain, Secretary, Department of Fisheries (DoF), Government of India (GOI) along with Sagar Mehra, Joint Secretary (Inland Fisheries), Dr J Balaji, Joint Secretary (Marine Fisheries) along with other officials of the Department. This webinar was intended to open a forum to initiate a dialogue about the crucial role of fisheries cooperatives in bringing out prosperity in the lives of fish farmers, leading towards holistic sectoral development. 

More than 100 participants including expert panellists, fishers, farmers, entrepreneurs, members of fisheries cooperative societies, fisheries officials of different States/UTs, faculties from State Agriculture, Veterinary and Fisheries universities, Fisheries cooperative officers, Scientists, students and other stakeholders from the fisheries value-chain across the country attended the webinar.

Jatindra Nath Swain, Secretary, Fisheries said, “With the increased production and productivity in the Indian fisheries sector, the Government has been focusing more on establishing cooperatives to enable small-scale fishers to avail support for institutional credit, quality inputs, transportation, logistic etc. through collectivization”.

Sagar Mehra shared his views on the significance of institutionalizing fisheries cooperatives in India. He also mentioned that fisheries being a sunrise sector, there is a need to learn from the best practices from the dairy, agriculture industries and try to use the learnings for developing cooperatives in the fisheries sector.

Sandeep Kumar Nayak, Director General, NCP; Dr. K.P. Rajan, Director, DNS Regional Institute of Cooperative Management, Patna; Dr. S. Noorjahan Beevi, Additional Director of Fisheries, Tamil Nadu and Mr. Anil Rana, Board of Director, AgriOrganic Producer Company Ltd, Una, HP shared their valuable thoughts during the expert panel sessions. Towards the end, the forum was open for interactive discussion with a wide range of questions and answers from all participants.

The webinar was intended to open a

Acquaculture, AgroPolicy

The workshop was attended by eight EAS member countries, four knowledge partners, officials of the Department of Fisheries

Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Government of India and the Government of Singapore organised a virtual East Asia Summit (EAS) Workshop on Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing yesterday co-chaired by India and Singapore Food Agency (SFA). Jatindra Nath Swain, Secretary, Department of Fisheries (DoF), Government of India gave the keynote address. The workshop was attended by eight EAS member countries, four knowledge partners, officials of the Department of Fisheries, the Government of India, Fisheries officials of different States/UTs and other invitees.

In his inaugural address, Swain highlighted the urgent call for combating illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. Swain shared some of India’s efforts and initiatives to combat IUU fishing especially through working with coastal fishing communities.

The workshop began with the opening session led by India and chaired by Joint Secretary, Department of Fisheries, Government of India, Dr J Balaji. During the welcome address, Dr J Balaji introduced the theme of the workshop and welcomed all the esteemed delegates, panellists and participants in the Workshop from the countries of Australia, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea along with India and Singapore. In his opening remarks to the EAS IUU Workshop, the CEO of the Singapore Food Agency highlighted the importance of combating IUU fishing which has negatively impacted the livelihood and food security of the coastal fishing communities.

Technical Session 1 focussed on regional collaborations in combating IUU fishing and was Chaired by Singapore Food Agency. The knowledge partners, namely, the Bay of Bengal Programme Inter-Governmental Organization (BOBPIGO), the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center (SEAFDEC) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) shared the regional efforts and the groundbreaking and continuous efforts being taken to combat IUU fishing. During Technical Session 2, representatives from each participating country shared their national success stories, experience gained and measures being taken up by the respective country to curb IUU fishing.

After sessions and discussions, the webinar concluded with closing remarks by Geetika Srivastava, Joint Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, GoI.

The workshop was attended by eight EAS

Acquaculture, AgroPolicy, Animal Health

According to the experts, intensification and diversification has added to the risk factors of the spread of new and emerging aquatic diseases in aquaculture

Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Government of India organised a webinar on National Surveillance Programme for Aquatic Animal Diseases: A Step towards Establishing Disease Governance System in India. The event was attended by more than 150 participants including officials of the Department of Fisheries, ICAR institutes, GoI and fisheries officials of different States/UTs, faculties from state agriculture, veterinary and fisheries universities, entrepreneurs, scientists, farmers, hatchery owners, students and stakeholders from aquaculture industry across the country.

The welcome address was given by IA Siddiqui, Fisheries Development Commissioner, DoF along with the introduction of the theme of the webinar and the distinguished panellists Sagar Mehra, Joint Secretary (Inland Fisheries); Dr Joykrushna Jena, Deputy Director General (Fisheries Science), ICAR, New Delhi; Dr Iddya Karunasagar, Advisor (Research and Patents), Nitte University, Mangaluru; Dr AG Ponniah, Former Emeritus Scientist and Former Discipline Leader, WorldFish Centre, Malaysia, Dr KK Lal, Director, ICAR- National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources, Lucknow; Dr Neeraj Sood, Principal Scientist ICAR- National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources, Lucknow; V Balasubramaniam, General Secretary, Prawn Farmers’ Federation of India, Bengaluru and other participants.

Shri Sagar Mehra, Joint Secretary (Inland Fisheries), in his opening remarks mentioned that aquaculture production through intensification and diversification has added to the risk factors of spread of new and emerging aquatic diseases in aquaculture.

During the technical session, Dr Joykrushna Jena, Deputy Director General (Fisheries Science), ICAR, New Delhi, set the context for the webinar and stated that India is a vast country with state divergent levels of capabilities and fisheries priorities hence surveillance programme for monitoring and controlling spread of diseases of national and international concern has become a primary requirement for effective health management and ultimately for sustainable aquaculture.

Dr Jena further stated that the National Surveillance Programme for Aquatic Animal Diseases (NSPAAD) of India has made its own example in establishing a coordinated surveillance programme for aquaculture.

Dr Neeraj Sood, Principal Scientist ICAR- National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources, Lucknow delivered a detailed presentation on NSPAAD along with the status of the project in the country and the future aims of the project.

Dr Iddya Karunasagar, Advisor, Nitte University, Mangaluru focussed on strategising aquatic animal health management based on disease surveillance through a knowledge filled session. Dr AG Ponniah, Former Emeritus Scientist and Former Discipline Leader, World Fish Centre, Malaysia delivered an informative session on emergency response in case of detection of exotic aquatic diseases and V Balasubramaniam, General Secretary, Prawn Farmers’ Federation of India briefed about the industrial approach and the need of fisheries and aquaculture sector for disease surveillance in shrimp aquaculture.

The webinar concluded with a vote of thanks proposed by Dr SK Dwivedi, Assistant Commissioner, DoF.

According to the experts, intensification and diversification