Assam to have a dedicated fish policy to help local fish producers

Assam will soon have a dedicated fish policy to regulate the fish prices in the market and to reduce dependence on import of fish from outside the state.

The committee has been formed after the departmentally related standing committee (DRSC) in its 24th report tabled in the Assam Legislative Assembly on the state fisheries department recommended setting up of a task force to regulate the smuggling of fish from outside the state and neighbouring Bangladesh, Myanmar.

According to an estimate, Assam imports 12-15 Metric tonnes of fish every day despite a considerable increase in the fish production in the state.

The state produced 4.32 lakh metric tonnes of fish in 2021-22 compared to 3.93 lakh MT in 2020-21.
Currently, demand for fish in the state is around 4 lakh metric tonne per annum. There was a wide demand-supply gap of 42 per cent in 2015-16 and it has come down to 0.7 lakh metric tonnes in 2020-2021 and by 2022 this gap has been met in terms of production.

The state currently has 12,610 ponds, covering 1,523.74 hectares and 4,029 community ponds spread over 468.1 hectares.

“Lack of a dedicated policy in the fisheries sector has opened gates for illegal import of fish at a time when state is attaining self-sufficiency in the production of the fish. Directorate of Fisheries is working on a plan to formulate a policy to increase the supply of home grown fish in the market which will also regulate prices,” a senior official of the fisheries department said.

The official added that prices of fish vary in the market when it comes from outside the state illegally.
And to check the illegal transportation, fisheries department doesn’t have a vigil squad of its own as it is looked after by the Agriculture Marketing Board which checks the consignment.

Of all the fish which comes in the market some are brought legally and majority portion are smuggled.
And in the process the local fish producers of the state lose out on their share of the pie in the market, which could have been otherwise if the state had a policy regulating the fish markets.

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