Status Aquaculture in Manipur 1

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Status of Aquaculture and Fisheries in Manipur
- Part 1 -

By:- Ajit Kumar Ng *

1. Introduction

Manipur is an Inland territory of Indian Union, a soft State on the north-Eastern border between India and Myanmar. It has a geographical area of 22,327 km2, of which 90% is hilly region, largely characterized by the dense forest and inaccessible terrains.

In Manipur, the source of water is surface water (lakes, rivers, bheels, etc) and sub-surface (underground water). As per land use data, the water bodies of the State occupy about 1.65% of the total land coverage. The usable land is 6.66% of the total land use pattern of Manipur.

Manipur obtains more protein from the fishery products than red meat. Extensive aquaculture has been in practice in the State for the past several years. Although the people are generally vegetarians, eating fish is allowed. No social function or ceremony is held without fish.

Fig.1: Map of Manipur

Fig. 2: Land Use Pattern in Manipur

Manipur has 3,360 km length of rivers and canals, 4,000 ha of bheels and wetlands, 5,000 ha of ponds and tanks that produce 18,600 tonnes of fish annually. The average fish yield from FFDA ponds is about 2.4 tonnes/ ha / year.

Inadequate stocking of quality seed in lakes and rivers is the major cause for the huge gap between the potential and the present production level of 18,600 metric tonnes. There is scope for increasing production from lakes, bheels, wetlands and ponds and tanks by the application of new technologies of aqua-farming.

2. Fisheries Prospects

Most appropriate soil/place for fish farming	Clay,loam,Valley districts of Imphal East, Imphal West, Thoubal and Bishnupur.
Source of fish spawn/fry for rearing	Government Fish Farms and Private fish farms.
Any benefit scheme of the government for farmers.	Financial assistance in the form of grant may be availed from the FFDAs for development of Fisheries.
Total Fisheries resources	56,461 ha
Water area so far developed	16,000 ha
No. of Fish Farmers Development Agencies established	8
No. of Fish Farmers trained	4,320
No. of Fish Farms of the state	107
No. of Govt. Fish Farms	18 (List appended)
Water area developed under FFDAs	2,395.38 ha

to be continued.....

* Ajit Kumar Ng ( PhD Scholar, Dept. Of Fisheries Microbiology, UNESCO Centre for Marine Biotechnology College of Fisheries, Mangalore) regularly contributes to e-pao.net . He can be contacted at ajit_b2007(at)yahoo(dot)co(dot)in
This article was webcasted at e-pao.net on 18th may 2009.

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