Govt to setup Aquaculture Park in Srinagar

Advisor to Governor, K Skandan Thursday said that a massive fisheries and aquaculture programme has been undertaken by the government to boost the fishing industry in the state.

According to an official spokesperson, the advisor stated thiswhile speaking at a two-day national conference on ‘Fisheries and ClimateChange’ at Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and TechnologyKashmir (SKUAST-K) here.

   

Advisor Skandan delved into detail as to how climate changehas affected food systems.  He said thatthe fisheries and aquaculture sector is a crucial resource in terms of ensuringfood and nutrition security. He called for collective efforts to create abalance between developmental needs and environmental sustainability. He saiduniversities, scientists and people together can make strategies to tackle theimportant issue of climate change which is affecting ecosystem, adding ifthings go unchecked oceans will also undergo multiple woes.

Terming trout as the pride of Jammu and Kashmir, he saidthere is a need to protect the fish variety and their ecosystem, adding variousmeasures are being taken for welfare of people associated with the fishingindustry.

The advisor announced that an Aquaculture Park shall be setup in Srinagar for which various locations are being explored. He said thatthere is a need to have a big aquaculture park where students and the generalpopulation can get acquainted with aquaculture practices.

The two-day conference titled ‘Fisheries and Climate: Strategies,Challenges and Sustainable Management’ is being organized by Division ofFishery Engineering, Faculty of Fisheries SKUAST-K in collaboration withMinistry of Earth Sciences, Government of India.

Prof Nazeer Ahmed, Vice-Chancellor, SKUAST-K, Dr DebajitSarma, Director ICAR-DCFR, Bhimtal, Prof MH Balki, dean faculty of Fisheries,Dr Gohar Bilal Wani, Organizing Secretary and Dr A S Ninawe, formerVice-Chancellor MAFSU also spoke on the occasion.

He said J&K State has around 93,000 people dependent onthe fisheries sector, while the requirement of fish is 1.5 lakh tons, however,the state produces only 20,000 tons of fish.

“J&K has tremendous potential in the fisheries sectorand it can become modern world-class industry as we have 50,000 hectares of waterarea in the state,” he added.

Advisor facilitated Ambreen Hamdani, an M Sc student ofSKUAST-K for winning DST-Lockheed Martin-Tata Trusts IIGP 2.0-UniversityChallenge 20-19 for her innovation.

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