With an eye on improving aquaculture exports, the Telangana government has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA), an arm of the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

Under the agreement, the MPEDA will set up a multi-species aquaculture centre with funding from the State government. The facility will consist of hatcheries, nurseries and training centres for export-oriented aquaculture species.

Cage culture policy

The MPEDA will help the State in formulating a cage culture policy for promoting export-oriented aquaculture in Telangana’s water bodies. “In order to build the capacity of farmers in adopting better management practices, we will organise the farmers into clusters under the National Centre for Sustainable Aquaculture (NaCSA),” an MPEDA spokesperson said.

Telangana has the country’s third-largest inland water resource base for fisheries with 77 large, medium and minor reservoirs and as many as 24,189 tanks with 5.7 lakh ha water spread area suitable for fisheries. Aquaculture is being carried out in more than 1,000 ha area. Of the 27 lakh fishermen in the State, about three lakh are organised into 4,000 societies.

The pact will also see the establishment of an Aquatic Quarantine Facility at Hyderabad Airport through an MPEDA society named Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Aquaculture (RGCA), besides extending technical and financial assistance for a chilled and live fish-handling facility at the same place.

Aqua conference

The MPEDA will organise a three-day Aqua Aquaria India 2019 meet in Hyderabad from August 30.

“Telangana has huge potential in developing inland aquaculture. The State can utilise the air connectivity from Hyderabad to export live and chilled fish to various markets,” KS Srinivas, Chairman of MPEDA, said in a statement on Thursday.

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