HT Correspondent
NAGAON, May 31: A day-long district-level stakeholder workshop on ‘Decentralised renewable energy technologies to strengthen the fishery value chain in Assam’ was organised at Hotel Rishiraj on Thursday last here.
The workshop was organised by ‘Kalong-Kapili’, a pioneer NGO working to promote aquaculture among grassroots people in Assam and the north-east region, and also serving as the brand ambassador of the Department of Fisheries, government of Assam, supported by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, the German Agency for International Cooperation.
The workshop was initiated with a brief note by Jyotish Talukder, director of ‘Kalong-Kapili’, in which Talukdar emphasised the need to scale up the DRE technologies for fish farmers of the state, urging the participants to scale up the activities through their support. He also mentioned that the DRE technologies not only enhance production but also help to be part of a climate-resilient approach to maintaining environmental sustainability.
Dr Pradeep Chandra Bhuyan, dean of the College of Fisheries, Assam Agriculture University, Raha, Rajendra Perna, DDM, NABARD, and Dr Niranjan Deka, principal scientist as well as head of Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Nagaon, attended the workshop as invited key resource persons.
Over a hundred fish farmers from Nagaon, Sonitpur, Biswanath, and East Karbi Anglong district participated in the workshop here.
The main objective of the project is to promote and implement self-sustainable decentralised renewable energy technologies that include solar water pumps, solar aerators, solar dryers, solar refrigerators to enhance extension services in FVC, reduce reliance on diesel in rural settings, and create a scalable as well as a replicable business model for fish farmers, farmer producer organisations, financial institutions, and NGOs, asserted in a press note here.
While addressing the occasion, Dr Pradeep Chandra Bhuyan, Dean Raha Fisheries College, and Dr Niranjan Deka mentioned that DRE has high potential and importance in the field of the fishery value chain and expressed their willingness to extend full support from their end for the betterment of the fish farmers of the district too. Meanwhile, DDM NABARD, Rajendra Perna, also assured support in replicating the DRE technologies for the benefits of the fish farmers of the district, as stated further in the press note here.
