CMFRI kickstarts major project to boost open sea cage farming

The Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute has kick-started a major project to boost open sea cage farming in Indian waters, setting a stage for it termed would be the 'Blue Revolution.'
In a bid to bolster mariculture activities in the country in the wake of a stagnation in the capture fishery, CMFRI started the first phase of the project to train fishermen in all maritime States on open sea cage farming.
The project envisages accelerating the process to usher in the 'Blue Revolution' by providing effective training to 5000 fishermen across the country with financial support of nearly Rs one crore from National Fisheries Development Board under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, a CMFRI press release said today.

In the first phase of the project, a three-day training programme began at the CMFRI in Kochi today.
As many as 50 fishermen from Ernakulam and Thrissur districts, who have registered with the Kerala Fishermens Welfare Fund Board, are attending the training.
As part of the project, CMFRI will provide training to 1,000 fishermen in Kerala.

CMFRI Director Dr A Gopalakrishnan said the cage fish farming technology has proved 70 times more productive than the normal methods of the fish farming in ponds.
Referring to scarcity of fish seed required to boost the cage fish farming,he said CMFRI has already commenced works to establish a brood bank of high value marine fishes suitable to cage farming with Rs nine crore financial support from NFDB.

"CMFRI will extend all technical support to the fishermen to start cage farming enterprises in the open sea waters which will become an additional income to the fishermen and will help increase the marine fish production of the country", he said, adding that CMFRIs door would be always open to the fishermen community.
Deputy Director of Fisheries S Mahesh, who inaugurated the training programme,said the State Fisheries Department had formulated plans to extend cage fish farming in Kerala sea waters along with the technical support of the CMFRI.