The Punjab Government would soon sponsor the students keen to undertake four-year Bachelor Degree or three-year Master Degree program in fisheries from China's leading institute Freshwater Fisheries Research Center (FFRC) at Wuxi. This decision was taken by Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal during his meeting with the FFRC Director Hu Zhong at Wuxi on Tuesday evening as a part of his official visit to China.The Chief Minister also announced that the Guru Angad Dev Veterinary Animal Sciences University (GADVASU) would soon ink a MoU with FFRC to promote fisheries in the state on the scientific lines in a big way. Stressing on the need to adopt the advanced practices in fisheries, Badal said that this could only be achieved through imbibing scientific temperament amongst the fish farmers in the state by the students trained from FFRC.
He also announced that the fish farmers from Punjab would also sent in batches for training in fisheries from the FFRC so as to enable them to enhance the fish production.On the occasion, Dr Padma Kumar , Advisor Fisheries to Punjab Govt. made a power point presentation on the Punjab's march towards 'Blue Revolution'. He mentioned that in Punjab, we were just rearing six varieties of carps and trying hard to promote Tilapia species which was in abundance in China. The Chief Minister was apprised by the senior faculty of the FFRC that it was the premiere institute in China undertaking extensive research in fresh water fisheries with specialized research in Carps and other fresh water species such as crabs, crawfish, catfish, soft shell turtles, shrimps etc.
Meanwhile, the delegation of fish farmers and experts led by the Chief Minister visited the experimental fish ponds in FFRC to have first hand account on the rare species of fish. Mr. Badal also visited the fish farm in Wuxi spread over 19 Hectare, where the average production was 25 tonnes per hectare as compared to six tonnes per hectare in Punjab. While interacting with the owner of the fish farm Mr. Jian Shenzgi showed modern practices to delegation which was highly impressed. Mr. Shenzgi told the delegation that he had a computerised system whereby the aerators start automatically once the oxygen level in the pond drops below the required level. He has automatic feed system whereby the feed was disbursed at regular intervals without any human supervision. The feed was different for every species. Also it is different for starter, grower and finisher.
The Chief Minister asked the Financial Commissioner Animal Husbandry Mr. G Vajralingam to ensure that these practices should be followed in Punjab by the progressive fish farmers which were currently not adopted there due to non-availability of modern techniques and equipments.The Chief Minister was accompanied by his Special Principal Secretary Mr. KJS Cheema, Mr. Raj Kumar, Assistant Director Fisheries, Kapurthala, Dr. KaleKattu Gopalapillai Padma Kumar Fisheries Expert, Dr. Asha Dhawan, Dean College of Fisheries, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Science University, Ludhiana besides the progressive fish farmers were also the part of delegation.