CIFRI-HDPE pen technology first trail in wetlands of Manipur

Our Correspondent
Imphal, Sep. 28 (EMN): Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute (CIFRI) – High Density Polyethylene (HDPE), a pen technology which was recently commercialised by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research-Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute (ICAR-CIFRI) was used in the wetlands of Manipur for the first time as part of technology refinement trials to improve fishing community income.
This was informed by principal scientist and PI Dr. B K Bhattacharjya of National Mission on Himalayan Studies (NMHS) Project during a field day programme of fish harvest from pen enclosures in Takmu pat at Sendra, 45 km south of Imphal in Manipur’s Bishnupur district on Friday.

The field day event was organised by ICAR-CIFRI, Regional Centre, Guwahati in collaboration with department of Fisheries, government of Manipur as part of technology refinement trials under the NMHS project.

It may be mentioned that CIFRI-HDPE technology was developed for in-situ quality fish fingerling (seed) and table fish production in wetlands and reservoirs.

Dr. Bhattacharjy said that pen aquaculture was carried out as part of a project sponsored by the NMHS, GB Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment and Sustainable Development, Almora in collaboration with DoF Manipur and the Net Fishing Co-operative Society, Keibul Takmu.

Expressing satisfaction over the good fish harvest from the pens, he urged the fishers to continue the pen culture in the coming years.

He hoped that successful implementation of the project in Takmu pat will lead to its large-scale adoption by the wetland fishers of Manipur, which had 30,171 ha of wetlands that were largely unexploited in spite of having high potential for increasing their fish production.

Fisheries Additional Director Khamsing Ahum observed that fish production from wetlands of Bishnupur could be possible if the fishers learned to utilise these fishery resources with scientific inputs.

Urging the fishers to continue pen culture in a better and more profitable manner, Co-PI Dr. Dipesh Debnath said that pens were a low-cost technology and if practiced following scientific guidelines could increase the income of fishers.