Reiterating that the ‘Blue Revolution’ in the state could transform the destiny of farmers, the Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today emphasized the need of strengthening infra structure in government fish farms so as to provide high quality fish seed to the fish farmers of the state for achieving this motive. Interacting with the officers/ officials during his visit in the government fish farms at Benra and Sangrur here this evening, the Chief Minister said that the SAD-BJP alliance government was making all out efforts for promoting fish farming in the state. He said that Punjab had pioneered ‘Green Revolution’ in the country, which was instrumental in providing food security to the country. However, he said that with escalating input costs and squeezing margins of profit agriculture was no longer a profitable venture due to which the farmers of the state were on the brink of economic crisis. Mr. Badal said that in such a dismal scenario pisciculture was the only ray of hope for the farmers as they could supplement their income through it.
The Chief Minister further said that in order to encourage fish farming in the state, the Punjab government has recently constituted Fisheries Board in the state. Likewise, he said that special thrust was being laid on imparting training to the fish farmers from reputed institutes both within the country and abroad. Mr. Badal said that due to the stupendous efforts of the state government, Punjab was leading the country in fresh water fish productivity. However, he said that state government was aiming to increase this production manifolds as there was a lot of scope to enhance this production, so the state government was wholeheartedly working towards this objective.
During his visit in Benra fish farm, the Chief Minister was apprised that the this farm was constructed over 20 acres of land and had supplied 35 lakh fish seeds to the farmers last year and this year the production of fish seed was likely to be 55 lakh. Likewise, in Sangrur fish farm he was informed that this was the smallest fish farm in the state in terms of area but it produces record yield of fish seeds every year. The Chief Minister was accompanied by Cabinet Minister Mr. Parminder Singh Dhindsa, MLA Mr. Gobind Singh Longowal and his Special Principal Secretary Mr. KJS Cheema.