Kochi: CMFRI, co-op bank train villagers in fish farming

Kochi: The Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) has partnered with the Korampadam Service Co-operative Bank, Kothad to promote cage fish farming in the backwaters of the Kadamakkudy panchayat. The initiative is aimed at helping the villagers become small-scale entrepreneurs through cage fish farming.

As many as 114 villagers attended a skill development programme, conducted recently by the CMFRI and the Bank, covering various stages of cage fish farming such as cage fabrication, site identification, species selection, feed management, harvest and marketing. Visits to cage farming sites and practical training were also included in the three-day programme.

The CMFRI will offer the technical guidance to the villagers while the bank will give them loans as initial capital to those starting the cage fish farming. The CMFRI would extend technical support to the farmers on each phases of the cage farming, said Dr A. Gopalakrishnan, director of CMFRI. "This will act as a source for additional income to the fishermen and it will help increase the domestic fish production as well," he added. Species such as cobia, seabass, snappers, mullet and pearl spot will be used for cage farming.

"The CMFRI has so far trained 2,500 fishermen all over the country, and around 2,500 cage fish farming units are currently operational across the coastal states under the CMFRI's technical guidance," said head of CMFRI's mariculture division Dr Imelda Joseph.