Hyderabad Mar 22: Mr. S.U Maheshwar Rao, Governing Body Member of A&N Islands, visited the National Fisheries Development Board at Hyderabad on 21.03.2023. The main purpose of the visit was to apprise the status of implementation of Pradhan Mantri MatsyaSampada Yojana(PMMSY) and to discuss various proposals in the field of Fisheries and Aquaculture of A&N Islands. During the visit, a detailed discussion was held with Dr. Suvarna, IFS, Chief Executive and Dr. L. Narasimha Murthy, Senior executive on various issues in implementation of PMMSY in A&N Islands. The Governing Body Member during the discussion emphasis the importance of tapping the Tuna potential of A&N Islands by introducing specialized Deepsea Tuna Long liners and requested for relaxation in terms of reference for allowing the traditional fishers having Motorized/mechanized fishing vessels to procure these vessels under PMMSY. This will open up avenues for existing fishers and their cooperatives to participate in major fisheries business and thereby improve their socio economics status. He also pointed out some pending claims under the Group Accident Insurance Scheme of A&N Islands for an early settlement. To fill the gap in the field of training & capacity building and to create the resource team from the Department of Fisheries, Mr. Maheshwar Rao demanded for creating a module of Training of trainers (ToT) exclusively for the Department of Fisheries field officials in the field of Mari culture, Shrimp farming, fishing technology, fish processing and value addition to overcome the difficulty of sending fishers/fish farmers for training to the mainland. This will also help to develop confidence among the stakeholders to take up various activities under PMMSY. The Chief Executive, NFDB extended all the possible support on the issues raised during discussion and assured her personal intervention in the proposals for relaxation of various clauses of guidelines to increase the coverage of PMMSY activities in A&N Islands. She has also advised the Governing Body Member to reach out the activities under PMMSY to all parts of the Islands by conducting an awareness drive for speeding up the implementation and achieving the target within the stipulated time. Regarding training & capacity building, the Chief Executive assured that NFDB will conduct various training programs in mainland research institute as well as in the Islands to create a strong training team for the Department and thereby up skilling of fishers, fish farmers and other entrepreneurs of A&N Islands who are interested in taking up various activities under PMMSY.
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