Rs 300 million allocated for North and East fisheries development

Ridma DISSANAYAKE

The Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development Ministry has allocated Rs 300 million for the development projects of the inland water fish industry and the aquaculture industry in the Northern and Eastern provinces.

Accordingly, all arrangements are in place to reconstruct the Iranamadu reservoir in the Kilinochchi district with the aim of increasing the inland water fish harvest in the North and East.

In addition, the National Aquaculture Development Authority (NAQDA) has taken measures to establish a fish breeding centre in a 30-acre land. They are to provide six mobile cool storage facilities for these provinces under this programme.

The NAQDA had already released over 150,000 fingerlings to the Udayarkadduwa reservoir in the Puthukudirippu area and the minister had distributed canoes, nets and equipment sets to the inland water fishermen spending Rs 2.2 million.

The ministry had released 3.5 million fish fingerlings to the North and East reservoirs in 2010 with NAQDA support.

Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development Minister Rajitha Senaratne distributed 20 glass canoes, 300 net sets and six computers worth Rs 3 million for the inland water fishermen in the Ampara district. In addition, measures are in place to establish the Namal Oya Community Hall and the ministry had spent Rs 2.4 million for that.

Before the last three decades, the North and East provinces provided 43 percent of the total fish harvest in the country. It decreased to eight percent due to terrorism. In the past two years, the fisheries ministry has achieved significant development in the fisheries sector including the North and East provinces as the fish production contribution of these provinces increased by six percent.

Currently, the provinces provide 13 percent of the fish harvest out of the total national production. All measures are in place to increase this to 23 percent at the end of this year. The target is to double this amount by 2013.

The fisheries ministry aims to increase export fish to 38,000 metric tons by the end of next year.