ISLAMABAD: Over 500 cages, developed under Cage Culture Cluster Development project funded by Prime Minister Agriculture Emergency Program, would be fully operational by year next, which was expected to produce 600 metric tons of fish and fish preparation, besides increasing income of rural farming communities of the country.
Cage Culture Cluster Development project was funded under the Prime Minister Agriculture Emergency Program and executed through Fisheries Development Board (FDB) of the Ministry of National Food Security and Research, said Dr. Safia Mushtaq, Project Director.
She said that this is an umbrella project with an aim to train local farmers of the sector in order to support them to capture fisheries potential existing in the country, adding that Fisheries Development Board has a plan to develop skilled human resource for the promotion of cage culture farming to increase fish production, economic uplift, and poverty elevation.
Dr. Safia said that a survey from August 2 to August 7 was conducted to monitor the till date progress of Punjab component, adding that under the project there is a provision to established 3 model farms and trained 1, 250 personals in which 50 are Master Trainers’ who will further impart trainings to 1, 200 fish cage farmers, hatchery operators, investors in aquaculture business, and labour force for aquaculture enterprises.
Monitoring visit was also conducted to the sites where subsidy based 500 cage farms were installed and inspected the civil work of health labs that are being established under the project, she said adding that cages are installed at Jamal Dam, Qibla Bandi Dam, and Chashma Lake, Ghazi Ghat, Head Punjnad and Head Qadirabad while 3 health labs are established at Sargodha, Multan and Gujranwala.
The installed 500 cages will be fully operational in next coming year and fish production of 600 metric tons is assumed to be produced on annual basis from these cages. Further 500 cages as per PC-I target will be installed during the current fiscal year, she added.
Work on fish health labs will also be completed during the current fiscal year and will be operational in 2022-23, she said adding that these labs will monitor fish and water health and provide early warning service to cage farming for any disease outbreak.
The meeting with Director General Fisheries Punjab was also held and discussed that training and capacity building of new cage farmer’s schedule of training program at different venues in Punjab initially will kick start in last week of this month, she added.
She said that the training will address the technical aspects of cage technology, such as seed stocking, feeding management, growth monitoring, water quality monitoring, net cleaning & maintenance, and fish harvesting etc. The visit ended with a strong understanding for future cooperation between the parties.