Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY), a flagship scheme focusing on sustainable development of country’s fisheries segment has been launched on Thursday by PM Modi.
In addition, he also inaugurated the e-Gopala App, an extensive breed enhancement marketplace and counseling portal which can be directly used by farmers.
Prime Minister announced- “People engaged in fish culture will get great advantages from this scheme. It is our goal to double our production and give make our pisciculture sector more robust within the next 3-4 years.”
He shared the motivational stories of Jyoti Mandal, Brijesh, Raju, and Monica, peasants who are involved in animal husbandry and fisheries units and depicted them as a source of encouragement to all other farmers nationwide.
“PMMSY will surely give space for a revitalized White revolution (dairy sector) and Sweet revolution (apiculture sector),” Modi stated. He also announced that 21 Indian states will be inaugurating the scheme thus strengthening the fortunes of many milk sellers and apiculturists.
Under the AatmaNirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India) package scheme, the PMMSY startup will witness an investment of about Rs 20,050 crore from 2020-21 to 2024-25. As per the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), this is the biggest ever investment in the fisheries segment.
Prime Minister also demarcated that the project will also bolster Ganga cleanliness projects and conversely the objective to bestow clean environment to dolphins under Project Dolphin will also gain an upheaval.
Apart from these, PM extolled Bihar’s CM, Nitish Kumar for providing extended support to peasants throughout the pandemic.
Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, pronounced that the project will enable us to assist setting up various newer technologies to aid people involved in fishing and animal husbandry. He further said that the measures adopted by the government would bolster India’s aim to become Atmanirbhar (self-reliant).
PM said that farmers served as the backbone playing a critical role to feed the entire nation during the lockdown phase.
PM emphasized the triumph of the PM KISAN scheme in Bihar saying that 75 lakh farmers of the state have received more than Rs 6,000 crore under this scheme.
In Bihar, the project foresees an investment of Rs 1,390 crore along with the central share of Rs 535 crore and the additional fish production goal fixed at three lakh tons. During the current financial year, the Union government has agreed Bihar’s proposal worth Rs 107 crore.
No digital platform is functional in the country at present for farmers managing livestock such as marketing of disease free germplasm, access to quality breeding services and advising farmers for animal nutrition, using suitable medicine to cure animals’ ailments.
No system is available as such to ping alerts regarding due date for vaccination, pregnancy diagnosis, calving and other related issues and notify farmers about any active government scheme and campaign in the area.
From now onwards, the e-Gopala app will enable the farmers to avail guidance regarding all these issues.
The PMMSY focuses to boost the fish production by an extra 70 lakh tonnes by 2024-25, multiplying the fisheries export earnings to Rs 1,00,000 crore by 2024-25, doubling the earnings of fishers and fish farmers, minimizing post-harvest losses from 20-25 per cent to about 10 per cent and creating extra 55 lakhs direct and indirect profitable job opportunities in fisheries and allied segments.