CMFRI told to prepare National Marine Fisheries Index 

KOCHI: Aimed at preparing the National Marine Fisheries Index (NMFI), NITI Aayog has requested the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) to initiate a slew of programmes for the development of marine fisheries in the country.The NMFI is intended to derive a comparative picture of marine fisheries development across the maritime states and islands.

The demand in this regard was made by N Manash Choudhury, deputy adviser (Fisheries), NITI Aayog, during an interaction with CMFRI director A Gopalakrishnan and scientists of the Institute. Choudhury also asked CMFRI to formulate a National Marine Fisheries Action Plan covering all maritime states and islands in line with the ‘Sagarmala’, a programme introduced by the Centre to boost the blue economic growth with the focus on improvement in coastal logistics and skill development.

“The action plan needs to be prepared based on the prospects and limitations of marine resources and environmental factors prevailing in coastal states. The CMFRI can identify the reasons for underutilisation of promising areas in the sector in each state and island,” he said.

“Huge investment is required to fully exploit the potential of marine fisheries resources available in the sector, giving due weight to sustainable growth. Ways and means to overcome the impediments limiting the private investments in mariculture and similar activities have to be found. The target is to produce 4 lakh tonnes of fish through cage farming by 2022. An ex-ante economic assessment on seed and feed value chains along with an estimation of investment requirements are important to achieve this target,” Choudhury said.