Fishing in Meghalaya
Meghalaya, with its vast inland fishery resources in the form of rivers, reservoirs, lakes and ponds and an average rainfall of 1200 mm, offers tremendous scope for developing the fisheries sector, but lags behind in harnessing the potential of these natural resources. The available land in most parts of Meghalaya is uneven in terrain which makes it somewhat difficult to develop fisheries on commercial lines. However, rain water can be impounded in small ponds for the production of fish and inland fisheries therefore, offering a potential that can be successfully exploited by the people of the state. Furthermore, creation of additional water area for fish culture will lead to a transformation in the rural economy and improve the livelihoods of the poor tremendously.
The Government of Meghalaya has identified fisheries as a key sector and decided to assist the people to develop fish ponds. It has launched the Meghalaya State Aquaculture Mission (MSAM) co-terminus with the Twelfth Five Year Plan period (20 12-13 to 20 16-17).
Meghalaya State Aquaculture Mission (MSAM)
The Aquaculture Mission is divided into six Mini Missions for better focus and ease of implementation. Mini Mission I is related to “Area and Productivity Expansion”, which will be achieved through four sub components, viz., individual pond construction, community pond construction, development of marshy and swampy areas and bheels and reservoir fishery development. Mini Mission II is for “Critical infrastructure development”, which has five components: fish seed production, fish feed production, fish disease management, pre and post harvesting infrastructure and creation and strengthening of fishery and multi-purpose cooperatives. Fish seed production will be achieved through Government and private hatcheries and utilizing FRP technology as also inducting Israeli technology.
Establishing sanctuaries for conserving indigenous and endemic species of fish is the focus of Mini Mission III. Surveys for identifying the endangered species, orientation workshops and media campaigns will be organised under the Mission. The Mission will collaborate with the Department of Tourism for boosting the objectives and targets of the Mission related to Mahaseer and other native species conservation. Mini Mission IV is for “Capacity Building” of farmers as well as officials, programme managers, multi-service providers, co-operators, etc. Mass mobilization campaigns and skill trainings for unemployed youth will be organised under this mini mission. Mini Mission V is titled “Mass media campaigns, documentation and outreach”, which will take care of two important activities, viz., awareness building about the Mission and publicity among the public and process documentation of the implementation and preparation of success stories.
Mini Mission VI deals with “Emerging opportunities in the fisheries sector”, which is an exclusive visionary component envisaged for tapping the emerging opportunities and addressing them with scientific backstopping. Ornamental fisheries, trout farming, introduction of freshwater prawn culture and new table species of fish and aqua tourism/ aqua parks/ sport fisheries will be the components under this mini mission.
Other Initiatives
Water development
The Department of agriculture has given emphasis in utilizing micro-watershed irrigation projects towards development of fisheries to optimize production of fishes from such rain water harvesting projects. Training and demonstration has been disseminated at the fisheries training institute to villagers 12 Small Reservoirs Multipurpose Development Projects and other communities who own these watershed project for utilizing modern technologies and identification of fish species which are suitable for culturing in these small reservoir.
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