Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal today asked fisheries department to augment fish production to minimise demand-supply gap and enable the sector to provide meaningful vocations to farmers and other entrepreneurs.
Chairing a meeting of the Fisheries Department Secretariat, Sonowal directed the department’s Principal Secretary M C Jauhari to take immediate steps to bring down demand-supply gap and augment fish production in the state by taking several innovative schemes.
Assam has predominantly 90 per cent of fish eating population but production outweighs supply creating a gap.
It may be mentioned that Assam produces 294 thousand metric tonne of fish while demand stands at 336 thousand metric tonne.
Sonowal also pointed out that there is a huge demand of local fish in Assam and other North Eastern States and a good production of the same will not only fulfil domestic demands but can lead to export outside the state.
The meeting also decided that in the larger interests of development of fishery resources of the state all the fisheries and other water bodies in the state are to be handed over to the Fishery Department.