The Rajasthan government will provide fish seeds for free to 20,000 farmers in a bid to promote fisheries. Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot recently approved the Rs 2 crore project that will provide each farmer or diggi (water pond) with 1,000 fingerlings of major Indian carps like rohu, catla, and mrigal. The project, announced in Budget 2023-24, has received financial approval recently. Select farmers will be imparted with training on fisheries at the district level soon, a department official said.
Rajasthan’s water bodies cover about 430,000 water spread area. This is in addition to about 70 rivers and canals covering about 30,000-hectare (ha) area. The state has made steady growth in inland fisheries over the past three decades. The area under fish culture and production in the state, which ranks 18th in output, has gone up. About 60 per cent of the total fish production comes from reservoirs, and the rest from tanks and ponds. The productivity of large reservoirs (55 kg/ha) is above the national average.
In this year’s Budget speech, the chief minister had announced to set up the Brackish Water Aquaculture Laboratory in Churu district to promote shrimp farming. “Work is going on,” the official said. The government is promoting innovations in the tribal sub-plan area under the livelihood model in Jaisamand Dam in Udaipur, Kadana backwater in Dungarpur, and Mahi Bajaj Sagar in Banswara. In these areas, the government is focusing on the creation of livelihood for tribal fishermen.