1ICAR-Central Institute of Fisheries Education, Versova, Mumbai – 400 061, Maharashtra
2ICAR Research Complex for North East Hill Region, Umiam – 793 103, Meghalaya
3College of Fisheries, Chattisgarh Kamadhenu Vishwavidyalaya, Kawardha – 492 006, Chhattisgarh
This paper has assessed fishery resource distribution, growth, consumption trends of fish and strategies for increasing fish production and nutritional security in North-East India using data from National Sample Surveys (NSS) rounds 38, 51, 60 and 66. The North-Eastern states with a total of 14,648 km of riverine fisheries resources in the forms of rivers, reservoirs, lakes and ponds, streams and flood plains, the wetland fish species are “ideal environment”. Expansion of fishery resources both horizontally and vertically, could open up vast opportunities in aquaculture development. Manipur produces about 32,000 tonnes of fish against requirement of 42,000 tonnes. Meghalaya has estimated fish deficit of more than 15,000 tonnes/year. In Assam, the annual fish production is estimated to be 1.6 lakh tonnes as against the demand of over 2.5 lakh tonnes. These results have indicated immense scope for increasing fish consumption in North-Eastern states ensuring near optimum nutritional standards prescribed for the nutritional security in absolute terms, though not necessarily at the individual level.
Fish production, fish consumption, nutritional security, Gini co-efficient, North-East India
