‘Unrevolutionary’: Fish production in Nagaland stagnant for last 7 years

December 20, 2023 17 Views No Comment

Morung Express News
Dimapur| December 20

Inland fish production in Nagaland has remained stagnant for the past seven years and in the last nine years, it increased by only 1000 tonne, according to data provided by the Union Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, and Dairying in the Lok Sabha.

The last increase in fish production in Nagaland occurred in the financial year 2016-17 when it rose from 0.08 lakh tonnes (8000 tonne) to 0.09 lakh tonne, reflected the state-wise data on North-East provided by Union Minister Parshottam Rupala.

Since then, the figure has remained constant at 0.09 lakh tonne, revealed the Ministry’s data in a written reply to an unstarred question in the lower house of parliament, indicating that ‘Blue Revolution’ to yet to make a good impact in the State.

In contrast, across the North-East, inland fish production recorded an average annual growth rate of 5.38% from 2014-15 to 2022-23. Production increased from 4.03 lakh tonne in 2014-15 to the highest production of 6.04 lakh tonne in FY 2022-23.

However, this growth is mainly driven by Assam, whose fish production increased from 2.83 lakh tonnes in 2014-15 to 4.43 lakh tonnes in 2022-23, constituting over 66% of the total production in the region.

During the same period, fish production in the rest of the NE states more or less remained stagnant, except for Arunachal Pradesh (0.04 to 0.09 lakh tonnes) and Tripura (0.65 to 0.83 lakh tonnes).

Nagaland, with a total production of 0.79 lakh tonne in the last nine years, experienced an average annual growth of just 0.08% from 2014-15 to 2022-23.

From 2014-15 to 2022-23, inland fish production across India increased from 66.87 lakh tonnes to 131.13 lakh tonne.

The Minister highlighted the implementation of the Blue Revolution, a centrally sponsored scheme from 2015-16 to 2019-20, and the sanctioning of projects worth Rs. 391.95 crore for NE States.

To build on this success, the Government of India launched the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) in 2020-21, with an investment of Rs. 20,050 crore for five years to enhance fish production through various initiatives, he said.

Under PMMSY, projects with a total outlay of Rs. 1391.62 crore have been approved for NE States from 2020-21 to 2023-24, with a minimum of 10% of the annual allocation earmarked for the region.

Additionally, to facilitate access to credit for aquaculture farmers and fishers, the Government of India extended the Kisan Credit Card (KCC) facility to them in 2018-19. A total of 1, 70,674 KCCs, with a loan amount of Rs. 1893.43 crore, have been issued, including 16,870 KCCs in NE States, he added.