Pics: Spoorthi Ullal
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (DV)

Mangaluru, Jan 4: The department of animal husbandry and fisheries along with the ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare, organized a national workshop on 'Adoption of Space Technology for Fisheries' in city here on Monday, January 4.

K Abhayachandra Jain, state minister for fisheries and youth services inaugurated the seminar.

Ashok Kumar Angurana, union secreatary, department of animal husbandry, dairying and fisheries, ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare in his keynote address said, "This is the first workshop in the city on adoption of space technology for fisheries in the entire state. Giving importance to 'Blue Revolution' PMO has asked to emphasize and effectively implement the schemes and give them a practical shape. Adoption of space technology in fisheries is universally accepted. Unless the  state governments, union territories and people involve themselves wholeheartedly the  entire 'Blue Revolution' cannot become a reality."

He also said that there are 1.4 crore fishermen in the entire country. In which, 20 lac fishermen have actively engaged in upfront fishing and 14 lac fishermen have used biometric cards and six lac biometric ID cards have not yet been issued to the fishermen. The state government should take active steps to issue biometric cards to the rest of the fishermen. This will help in providing an identity database for fishermen, convergence and co-ordination. There are 167 monitoring or surveillance centers which need to be strengthened. Hence biometric cards are requisites.

K Abhayachandra Jain, state minister for fisheries expressed his gratitude to the organizers for choosing Mangaluru and said, "The Government of Karnataka has been providing various facilities for the development of fisheries and fishermen in the state such as supply of fishing kits, houses for fishermen, subsidy on fish marketing, accident insurance for fishermen."

He also called upon the government of India to provide more budgetary allocation for development and modernization of fishing harbors in coastal Karnataka and to release the funds from central quota in a phased manner. "The union government must focus on modernization and development of infrastructure like fishing harbors, landing centers, ice plants and cold storage by providing higher budgetary support. An integrated approach may be developed for vessel monitoring, communication and distress signaling, so that fishermen will be able to receive the weather forecast on any fishing zone. On behalf of the Government of Karnataka, we are ready to join any endeavor for the betterment of fishermen and the fishing industry."

Dr N S Chennappa Gowda, state secretary department of animal husbandry, dairying and fisheries, ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare were welcomed.

Adtiya Kumar  Joshi, joint secretary for fisheries,  department of animal husbandary, dairying and fisheries, ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare thanked the assembled.