DG, ICAR visits KVK Lakshadweep of ICAR-CMFRI
23 April 2022, New Delhi: Dr. Trilochan Mohapatra, Secretary DARE and Director General of the ICAR visited the Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Lakshadweep of the ICAR-ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) at Kavaratti on 16th April 2022. He was accompanied by Dr. J.K. Jena, DDG (Fisheries Science), Dr. A. Gopalakrishnan, Director, ICAR-CMFRI and Dr. V. Venkatasubramanian, Director, ICAR-ATARI, Bangalore.During the visit, a Farmer’s Meet was organized which was attended by more than 60 progressive farmers along with the officials of the UT Administration of Lakshadweep. Addressing the gathering Dr. Trilochan Mohapatra stated that seaweed culture, value addition and processing of coconut and fish are the three important areas for improving entrepreneurship in the islands. During the meet, farmers, entrepreneurs, promoters of new FPOs formed and beneficiaries of TSP-ICAR-CMFRI were felicitated by the DG, ICAR. Prior to the Farmer’s Meet, Dr. Trilochan Mohapatra visited the District Agro Meteorological Unit established by the KVK-CMFRI-Lakshadweep at Kavaratti.
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An interface meeting between the ICAR and officials of the UT Administration of Lakshadweep was chaired by Dr. Trilochan Mohapatra which was attended by Mr. Amith Satija, Secretary (Finance), Mr. Shashank Mani Tripathy, Secretary (Agriculture) and Mr. Santhosh Kumar Reddy, Special Secretary (Agriculture) of the UT Administration of Lakshadweep. Dr. P. N. Ananth Senior Scientist and Head, KVK-CMFRI-Lakshadweep presented the achievements of the KVK and Dr. Mohammed Koya, Scientist presented the achievements of ICAR-CMFRI’s work on fisheries of Lakshadweep. Chairing the interface meeting, the DG indicated to carry out works on promotion of nutria-gardens, soil-less media, water conservation, coconut value addition and processing along with the expertise of ICAR Institutes in the region.On 19 April, 2022 Dr Trilochan Mohapatra visited the pilot-scale sea cage farm of ICAR-CMFRI at Agatti Island funded by the National Fisheries Development Board, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying. The project started since June 2020 intended to demonstrate farming of commercially important fishes and shellfishes like Pompano and Lobsters in the lagoons of Lakshadweep using cage enclosures. Lakshadweep atolls and open seas have immense potential for sea cage farming owing to having shallow and calmer lagoons of nearly 20,000 ha. The DG interacted with the partner farmers and the scientists and verified the potential of turning it into a scalable enterprise in Lakshadweep. He appreciated the efforts of ICAR-CMFRI for its proactive demonstration and capacity building in farming fishes in the sea in various parts of the country including remote territory of Lakshadweep.
