- NET Web Desk
Recently, the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services Department Minister, Lok Nath Sharma launched the Fish Farmer Producers Organization (FFPOs) PMMSY e-portal on fisheries of Sikkim and fish farming training manuals.
During his address, Sharma marked the launching programme as a historic milestone towards the strengthening of the fisheries sector in Sikkim.
He said that State Government has been working tirelessly to bring notable progress in fisheries in the State.
Besides, he also thanked the NFDB-Hyderabad for its consistent financial support.
The initiative for launching the PMMSY e-portal, is entirely dedicated to the State of Sikkim.
It 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, Shri Diwakar Hegde virtually addressed the participants and expressed happiness on the formation of FFPOs with the support of NABARD and 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 main objective for developing the e-portal is to encourage fish farmers and unemployed youth to take up entrepreneurship activity in the field of fisheries.
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-SSO) 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 cultivators, thereby enhancing 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.
It will help to develop a vibrant and sustainable income-oriented fisheries value chain.
Further, through the immense 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).
Here, 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.
