The Fisheries Department is gearing up to launch a caged aquaculture project to tap the potential of inland fisheries in the Banasura Sagar reservoir of the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) at Padinharethara in Wayanad district.
Fisheries Minister J. Mercykutty Amma will inaugurate the project through videoconferencing at 11 a.m. on Tuesday.
“The project, under the Rebuild Kerala programme, aims tapping the fisheries potential of the Banasura Sagar reservoir, one of the largest earthen dam in the country, and improving the lives of the tribespeople on the banks of the reservoir,” M. Chitra, Assistant Director, Fisheries Department, told The Hindu.
As many as 90 batteries of cages, each of 6x4x4 metre, in nine blocks had been set up at the Kuttiyam Vayal area of the reservoir for the project and 3,840 fingerlings could be deposited in each cage, Ms. Chithra said.
“We are planning to deposit 3,45,600 the fingerlings of Gift Tilapia species of fish and it can be harvested in six months,” she said.
“Harvest can be done twice a year and we expect an average production of 1,35,000 kg of fish in each harvest,” she said. Ninety tribal fishermen families would benefit from it, Ms. Chithra said, adding that the department had constituted a cooperative society of tribal fishermen for the purpose.
A sum of ₹3.2 crore has been spent for the project and the Agency for Development of Aquaculture Kerala is the implementing agency.
In Karapuzha too
The department would soon launch a similar project at Karapuzha reservoir with 10 cages under the Innovative Aquaculture project of the State government, Ms. Chitra added.
