Gangtok: Minister for Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services Department Lok Nath Sharma inaugurated the newly established Conference Hall at the Office of the Directorate of Fisheries, near Paljor Stadium, today. He also launched Fish Farmer Producers Organization (FFPOs) PMMSY e-portal on fisheries of Sikkim and fish farming training manuals.
The programme also had the presence of the Secretary Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services Dr Sangey D. Bhutia, Director, Directorate of Fisheries Jaswant Singh and officials.The programme was also joined virtually by Chief Executive, National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB)-Hyderabad, Government of India Dr Suvarna C. from Chennai and G.M. NABARD Diwakar Hegde from Regu, East Sikkim. The Minister in his address marked the launching programme as a historic milestone towards the strengthening of the fisheries sector in Sikkim. He said that the State Government has been working tirelessly to bring notable progress in fisheries in the State. He also thanked the NFDB-Hyderabad for its consistent financial support.
The initiative of the launching of PMMSY e-portal, dedicated to the State of Sikkim, will certainly save time for the farmers and expedite the process digitally for immediate solutions, he stated. The Minister also shared the vision and planning of making the state self-sufficient in terms of production of indigenous varieties, particularly relating to the high demand of Trout and Carp fish and its supply outside, once the futuristic goals are achieved through proactive participation.
Chief Executive, NFDB Dr Suvarna C. congratulated and applauded the State of Sikkim for enthusiastic support in the implementation of PMMSY by launching an e-portal. She also acknowledged the formation of FFPOs in the state. Dr Suvarna also drew light on the advantages of climatic conditions in the Himalayan state for fish farming and assured to provide continuous support for the development in this sector. The General Manager, NABARD, Diwakar Hegde virtually addressed the participants and expressed happiness on the formation of FFPOs with the support of NABARD and also defined organisations as the key social capital of tremendous importance. It may be mentioned here that the PMMSY e-portal has been designed to facilitate online applications for applying on different fish farming schemes of the government. It will help in reducing the time and paperwork for both fish farmers and officials.
The fish farmers can directly login from their mobile through the portal (pmmsy.sikkim.gov.in) and can apply from home only. The objective for developing the e-portal is to encourage fish farmers and unemployed youth to take up entrepreneurship activity in the field of fisheries. The e-portal provides services of online application, scrutiny, validation of documents, issuing of work orders and subsidies through Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT). The PMMSY e-portal has been developed under Sikkim –Single Sign On (Sikkim-SOS) of the Department of Information Technology.
PMMSY provides for the creation of Fish Farmers Producer Organizations/Companies (FFPOs/Cs) under the central sector component that would help to economically empower the fishers and fish farmers and enhance their bargaining power. The main objective of FFPOs is to build capacities of fishers and fish farmers to develop entrepreneurial skills for making the FFPOs economically viable and self-sustaining and develop a vibrant and sustainable income-oriented fisheries value chain. It may be further mentioned that through the support of NABARD, two units of FFPOs at Regu in East Sikkim and Sribadam in West Sikkim will be developed by Directorate of Fisheries with technical support from SIMFED, Gangtok.
Training Manual on fish farming of carp and trout were also launched by the Minister, which will be helping the farmers in successful culture of fish thereby augmenting the fish production in the state. The Director of fisheries, N. Jaswant informed that a total of 363 fishermen from the state of Sikkim have been registered under NFDB-PMMSY- Group Accidental Insurance Scheme (GAIS) where the beneficiaries will be benefitted from Rs. 25,000/- against accidental hospitalization, Rs. 2, 50,000/- against permanent partial disability and 5 lakhs against death or permanent total disability.
