HYDERABAD: Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu on Friday said that there has emerged a need to develop the agriculture and aquaculture sectors in the country to generate employment for those who belong to the rural areas. Speaking after inaugurating the three-day-long fifth edition of the aquaculture event, ‘Aqua Aquaria India 2019’, organised by the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA), the vice-president said that India has high potential to attain growth in the fisheries sector.
He also urged people to take up aquaculture and said that even though India was the second-largest fish producer in the world with a production of 13.70 MMT during 2018-19 and fourth-largest fish exporter in the global market, however, the sector makes only 1% contribution to our GDP, he observed and noted that there is a huge scope for improvement. The theme for this year’s event is ‘Taking Blue Revolution to India’s Hinterland’.
‘Hyderabad lacks fish-farming culture’
Alleging that Hyderabad lacks fish-farming culture, many fish farmers from the city claimed that the State capital does not even have the proper infrastructure to take up fish farming. “Even though Hyderabad has so many lakes, fish farmers are not able to take up aquaculture as most of the lakes are polluted,” said K Padma from Hyderabad fisheries corporation