India’s Assam state, located in the country’s northeast, has increased its fish production by 54 percent in the past nine past years, the Indian Agriculture Ministry noted in a recent report.
However, the ministry said demand for seafood, at 336,000 metric tons, still outpaces the state’s fish annual fish production of 294,000 metric tons, and that the balance is met with fish imported from Andhra Pradesh, which is the largest fish-producing state in the country.
Straddling the Brahmaputra basin, the state has 4,820 km of rivers and canals and 135,000 hectares of water bodies, including tanks, ponds, and floodplains that could potentially be used for aquaculture, the ministry said. According to the report, the state will seek to expand the total area used aquaculture in coming years in an effort to continue to boost fish production.
Across India, approximately 1.3 million hectares of wetlands and other derelict water bodies are currently laying fallow that could be adopted for aquaculture, the ministry said. More productive use of these bodies of water could provide a significant boost to the country’s fish production, making it a major focus area of the department, according to the report.
Assam is the highest fish-producing state in the Northeast, followed by Tripura state with 69,000 metric tons, Manipur state with 32,000 metric tons, Meghalaya produces 11,000 metric tons, Nagaland with 8,000 metric tons, Mizoram with 6,000 metric tons, and Arunachal Pradesh produces with 4,000 metric tons of in 2016-17.
Andhra Pradesh, in India’s southeast, is the top fish-producing state in India with 2.35 million metric tons in 2016-17. It has registered 132 percent growth in its fish production in the past nine years.
