BARAMULLA: The youth of Baramulla have defied all odds by carving a niche for themselves by setting up fish farming units to earn for themselves and create jobs for others.
Baramulla has been bestowed with famous water bodies having great potential for fisheries. Angling and fish farming is fast emerging as a potential sector for providing a vocation for the rural youth.
The number of fish farmers in the private sector have increased manifold with hundreds of people getting attracted to this trade in Baramulla District.
Giving an insight into this new attraction being explored by the local youth to generate income and employment, the Director Fisheries, Irshad Ahmad Shah said that the government has strengthened the fisheries sector to make it a useful instrument of economic growth, especially in district Baramulla.
He said a number of developmental and welfare schemes have been launched for providing assistance to rural unemployed youth for taking up fish culture. Fish farming especially trout with improvised technology applications is proving to be a bullying economic indicator besides supplementing protein in the diet.
The fisheries department is extending technical know-how in this regard so that they can produce quality products and get remunerative prices and the fish growers all over the district are employing this latest technical knowledge in fish culture to boom production.
He said the experts interact with the fish growers regularly to boost fish farming in the district. “During last year the department under the Centrally sponsored schemes (CSS)/Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampadha Yojna (PMMSY) has constructed 18 No’s of Trout Units, 01 No of Carp Unit and 01 No of Biofloc Unit in the District,” said the Director.
Under Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampadha Yojna (PMMSY), the department provides a subsidy of Rs 2.20 lacs for the construction of the Trout Unit for the general category, and for women/ST/SC category the subsidy component is 3.30 lacs for the establishment of Trout Unit.
For the establishment of the Carp pond the department under Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampadha Yojna (PMMSY) is providing a subsidy component of 0.74 lacs and for the women/ST/SC category, the subsidy component is 1.10 lacs.
