Aquatic resource project woos investors to develop inland fisheries

The Aquatic Resource Development and Quality Improvement Project (ARDQIP) is financed by the Government of Sri Lanka and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), ADB/ARDQIP is implemented by National Aquaculture Development Authority (NAQDA), which is a statutory body that comes under the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquatic Resource Development.

The project promotes market-driven and sustainable management of inland fisheries and aquaculture through resource development and quality improvement.

The project area covers 15 districts. These districts are Anuadhapura, Polonnaruwa, Puttalam, Kurunegala, Nuwara Eliya, Matale, Ratnapura, Badulla, Moneragala, Hambantota, Ampara, Trincomalee, Batticaloa, Vauniya and Mannar. The project became operational in May 2003 and is planned for seven years.

The project is expected to generate number of measurable as well as non-measurable benefits. At full development by 2010, the productive capacity of about 10,000 hectares of perennial minor reservoirs with a group of about 3,000 hectares of seasonal tanks mostly located in rural areas in the dry zone will also be enhanced through the introduction of culture-based fisheries and aquaculture respectively.

In addition, a community-based fisheries management program is also underway. It will also be implemented in about 50 selected major and medium reservoirs. With the completion of the Project is expected that the local community groups with the given training and extension support from NAQDA would be able to manage the resource especially by keeping the fishing effort well within sustainable levels.

Carp and Tilapia are two varieties of popular inland fish. Carp and Tilapia production in tanks will be supplemented by production in ponds to be developed and operated by individual private investors. Incremental investments in fish pond culture are envisaged for carp and tilapia culture.

This will require about 250 ha and about 600 ha respectively to meet the annual production set under the Project. These interventions would result in incremental carp and tilapia production to reach about 26,000 t per year. Such production is anticipated to raise inland fish production to almost double the present quantity.

Increased production of higher-value fish products is also envisioned under the project with the establishment of three inland fish processing plants, the technology of producing quality dried and smoked fish will also be extended. It will reduce fish losses through improved post-harvest handling.

The Project will facilitate the private sector taking a lead role in new investment. It will develop and demonstrate models that can easily be replicated by private entrepreneurs.

With successful operation of the model enterprises and demonstration facilities set up by the Project is envisaged to swell investment by the formal private sector, will increase.

These will include; carp and tilapia hatcheries and nurseries that will supply fingerlings for stocking in the minor reservoirs and seasonal tanks or for culture in freshwater ponds; freshwater prawn hatcheries and grow out farms that will produce marketable prawns for households and institutional buyers such as hotels and restaurants; plant tissue culture facilities that will produce aquatic ornamental plants for export; a milkfish hatchery and nursery that will produce fingerlings for sale as baitfish to tuna fishes; Tilapia hatchery and culture facilities that will produce market-size fish for processing into fillets for domestic consumption and export.

All together around 420 new fish mini-hatcheries and nurseries, 26 hatcheries and 250 ha of ponds for freshwater prawns, 90 ornamental fish nurseries, 25 ornamental aquatic plant nurseries are projected to set up, a project press release said.