Odisha To Focus On Employment Generation In Fishery Sector

October 22, 2016 Government

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi on Saturday directed the officials to build a fishery infrastructure in such a manner that it generates more employment opportunities.

The state government has targeted to achieve seafood export target of Rs 20,000 crore in next five years.

Padhi directed the executing agencies to expedite the power supply work to the clusters and complete those in various phases from December 2016 to March 2017.

It may be worth mention here that 107 number of brackish aquaculture clusters have been identified in various places of the state mostly along the continental shelf. Out of this, 19 clusters have been taken up in the first phase on a priority basis.

Chief Secretary directed to prepare a timeline for electrification of balance 88 clusters and complete the work within March 2018. It was also decided to develop 468 km of fish export related road infrastructure in the area. Forest department was directed to expedite the process of the issue of the certificates required for these linear projects of road and power connectivity.

Fisheries secretary Bishnupada Sethi appraised that state achieved the highest growth rate in the country in fish production during the year 2015-16.

The growth rate was 11.10% in the year 2015-16. The total fish production during the year was 5,21, 278 MT against that of 469548 MT produced during 2014-15. Similarly, the export of fish and fishery product during the year went up to 35,630 MT with a total value of around Rs.1788 crore.

In the year 2012-13, the total fish production was 4,10,144 MT which grew to 4,13,889 in the year 2013-14. In the year 2014-15, the total production got enhanced to 4,69,548 MT followed by a total production of 5,21, 278 MT during the year 2015-16.

Presently near about 34 seafood exporters are operating in Odisha. There are 22 manufacturers and 12 numbers of merchants. Odisha seafood finds its major market in Eastern Europe, Japan, China, Middle East and southeastern Asian countries.

It is expected that with the completion of road and power connectivity to the aquaculture clusters, the production cost in Odisha would be more competitive and would fetch more income to the fish farmers.