Bhubaneswar: A week-long SAARC regional training on “Mass Breeding and Culture Technique of Catfishes” kicked off at the ICAR-Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture (ICAR-CIFA), Bhubaneswar Monday.
The training, jointly organised by the SAARC Agricultural Centre (SAC), Dhaka and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), aims at capacity building in SAARC member states in aquaculture.
Delegates from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka are participating in the programme that will continue till July 21.
The programme has been organised with the objective of sharing of ideas, commonalities and solutions among the stakeholders of the SAARC countries working on catfish farming.
N Sarangi, former Director, ICAR-CIFA, AK Sahu, renowned researcher in catfish farming and former head, APED, ICAR-CIFA, were present at the inauguration.
During the inaugural function, the dignitaries highlighted the importance of species diversification in aquaculture, fish biodiversity conservation in the water bodies of the South Asian region and stressed on potential of catfish farming in SAARC region.
The programme is being coordinated by a team of scientists of the ICAR-CIFA comprising of SK. Sahoo, Rajesh Kumar, Pankaj K Tiwari and BR Pillai. The deliberations in the training programme are expected to focus on different aspects of catfish culture like pond construction, pond environment monitoring, induced breeding of different catfish species, seed production, rearing, feeding and health management among several others.
SAARC training on catfish gets underway
