Curbs on fish seed release lifted

Medak: Last year, fish seed was released in irrigation tanks covering 100 acres of ayacut. This year, the State government has decided to remove this cap and release fish seed in all the tanks, including kuntas, identified by Fisheries Department. In Medak district alone, last year 317 tanks were taken up for growing fish.

But this year, the department is planning to release fish seed in as many as 1600 tanks, subject to availability of water and depending on rains in August and September.

During an awareness programme held by the department for fishermen at Komtur village in Medak mandal on Tuesday, District Fisheries Officer R Laxminarayana exhorted the fishermen of the village to ensure checking ‘quantity’ and ‘quality’ of fish seed being released into water, so that any possible issue coming up could be addressed then and there.

He asked the farmers to sell fish locally as much as possible and catch fish not all at a time, but in phases by ‘staggerd harvesting,’ in order to prevent dumping the entire catch in the market all at once. He also asked them not to sell fish by taking advance from middlemen and agreeing upon a prefixed price.

He suggested the fishermen to hold an open auction at the time of harvesting, which was done successfully by Pocharam Fishermen’s Cooperative Society last year, yielding good returns to them.

He also encouraged the fishermen to make maximum use of the State government’s fishermen-friendly initiative and use the 75 per cent subsidy to purchase equipment like fishing nets, teppas (small boats), mopeds and so on, being provided by the department.

He disclosed that 1 acre of land was identified for construction of a fish market in Medak, the construction work for which would be started soon.