Bhubaneswar: ICAR-Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture, a premier institute for research in freshwater aquaculture, inaugurated the first Ornamental Aquaculture Field Schoolof Odishaatthe farm of Sri Rajesh Ranjan Mohapatra of Kochila Nuagaon village, Tangi Chowdwar Block Cuttack district, Odisha. Sri Mohapatra has received training and guidance from CIFA in freshwater aquaculture ventures and now he owns two farms spread over 6 acres. This unique field school is established to facilitate farmer-farmer learning and dissemination of ornamental fish culture technique. The school envisages empowering scheduled caste ornamental fish farmers/farm women of nearby villages contributing greatly to extension and advisory services delivery.The field school wasinaugurated by Dr. Saroj Kumar Swain, Director, ICAR-CIFA, Bhubaneswar. Dr. Swain while addressing the gathering urged thefarmers and farm women to take up ornamental fish farming as a means to strengthening their livelihood and assuredthem technical support from ICAR-CIFA.He mentioned that the AFS piloted by the institute in Odisha, West Bengal, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have been extremely popular. Dr. H. K. De, Principal Scientist & Chairman, SCSPgave an overview of Aquaculture Field School- An innovative extension methodology. Dr. Ashis Saha, Co-chairman, SCSP gave an overview of SCSP activities being carried out by ICAR-CIFA in Odisha. Dr. Sujata Sethy, Officer In-charge, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Cuttack graced the occasion and complimented ICAR-CIFA for the initiatives in supporting aquaculture development.
Shri I. B. Kumar, Senior Administrative Officer, ICAR-CIFA and the SCSP team from ICAR-CIFA attended the programme.A one-day training programme on ornamental fish farmingwas organised for the farmers,maintaining COVID-19 guidelines. The training was attended by 50farmers and farm women.A farmers-scientists interface was also organised on this occasion and queries of fish farmers were addressed. A soil water testing camp was also organised for the benefit of the farmers. The programme was coordinated by Dr S. N. Sethi, Principal Scientist of ICAR-CIFA.
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