India 2018

Agriculture 57
average of 42.55 million kgs per day of milk during the year 2015-16 as compared
to 38 million kgs per day in the previous year recording a growth of 12 per cent.
Fisheries
Presently India is the second largest fish producing and second largest
aquaculture nation in the world. India is also a major producer of fish through
aquaculture and ranks second in the world after China. The total fish production
during 2015-16 (provisional) stood at 10.79 million metric tonne (MMT) with a
contribution of 7.21 MMT from inland sector and 3.58 MMT from marine sector.
Fisheries is a sunrise sector with varied resources and potential, engaging
over 14.50 million people at the primary level and many more along the value
chain. Transformation of the fisheries sector from traditional to commercial scale
has led to an increase in fish production from 7.5 lakh tonne in 1950-51 to 107.95
lakh tonnes (Provisional) during 2015- 16, while the export earnings from the
sector registered at ` 30,420.83 crore in 2015-16 (US $ 4.69 billion).
The historical scenario of Indian fisheries reveals a paradigm shift from
marine dominated fisheries to a scenario where inland fisheries emerged as a
major contributor to the overall fish production in the country.
Within inland fisheries there is a shift from capture fisheries to aquaculture
during the last two and a half decade. Freshwater aquaculture with a share of
34 per cent in inland fisheries in mid-1980s has increased to about 80 percent in
recent years. It has emerged as a major fish producing system. Fish Farmers
Development Agencies (FFDA) were set up in various districts for delivering a
package of technologies, practices, training and extension and for providing
financial assistance to the beneficiaries. So far, about 0.65 million ha of water
area have been brought under fish farming covering 1.1 million beneficiaries.
Currently the average annual yield is around 3.0 tonnes/ha. At the same time
training has been imparted to about 0.8 million fishers. Mariculture in the
country over the years was confined largely to bivalve molluscs viz., mussels,
edible oysters and pearl oysters, and to some extent seaweeds. With a thrust on
development of technologies pertaining to sea cage farming during last decade,
developmental plans with both forward and back ward linkages are envisaged
to allow these activities to become significant contributors to production of
seafood in the country.