TS govt plans Aqua Hubs around irrigation projects

Hyderabad: On the lines of neighbouring Andhra Pradesh promoting aquaculture for commercial needs, the Telangana government has come up with the idea of creating 'Aqua Hubs'. To meet the growing demand for seafood varieties mainly fish, shrimps, lobsters and prawns, the State Government has begun a search for suitable locations to promote aquaculture at the irrigation project sites on the banks of Krishna and Godavari.

The Mid Manair reservoir has been identified as one of the potential sites to establish the first of its kind Aqua Hub in the Telangana state, officials of the Animal Husbandry and Fisheries department said that the 'Aqua Policy' adopted by the State government already drew desirable results. The initiatives taken by the government in the promotion of aqua culture mainly shrimps and fish production has gone up manifolds in the recent years.

The official data has shown that prawn production doubled in just eight years. It was only 6,500 tonnes of prawn production in 2014-15 and achieved 13,800 tonnes in 2021-2022. New natural techniques were adopted to promote prawn culture with the available water resources in canals and reservoirs constructed on the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project and other projects on River Godavari and Krishna. Now, locally grown prawns are available in the villages and towns where the reservoirs have become a centre of aqua production in the state. Fish production has also been increased to 3.76 lakh tonnes in 2022 as against 2.6 lakh tonnes in 2015. Now, the fish supply from Telangana water bodies was meeting domestic demand.

The studies conducted by the government said that there is a big scope to promote the state as an 'Aqua Hub' like Andhra Pradesh was already excelling in the area of aqua production. The Telangana state has every potential to encourage the aqua culture by exploiting the available natural resources. "The Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project and big reservoirs like Mallanna Sagar, Kondapochamma Sagar and existing old Mid Manair, Nizam Sagar and Sriram Sagar dams are the big water resources which can be used to promote aquaculture. Abundant land banks which are available on the banks of the water bodies are suitable to set up Aqua Hubs in public and private partnership. Local entrepreneurs are being given priority to establish food processing centres in aqua hubs," said an official. The government will soon make a major announcement about the establishment of Aqua Hubs in the state.