Port Blair, Jul 24: A one-day workshop cum awareness programme on ‘Entrepreneurship on Fancy Guppy fish culture: Status, Scope, Challenges, Opportunities and Marketing strategies in A&N Islands’’ was organized on 22nd July 2022 by Institute Technology Management Unit and Fisheries Science Division, ICAR-CIARI. A total of 25 participants including SHGs, small-scale business persons and NGOs participated in the programme.
Dr. E.B. Chakurkar, Director, ICAR-CIARI narrated about the commercialization of technologies and the importance of fancy Guppy fish. Dr. Jai Sunder, Pr. Scientist & I/c PME Cell detailed about the commercializable technologies and other consultancy services available by the institute. Dr.T.Sujatha, Sr. Scientist & I/c ITMU informed the business potential of the fancy guppy fish culture and asked the participants to proceed with adopting the technology.
Subsequently, a brief presentation was given by Mr. J. Praveenaj, a Scientist about the history of guppy fish, its significance in the aquarium hobby, its trade value and its scope and cultural aspects in the Andaman Islands. He also covered various other aspects and CIARI intervention in Guppy fish culture in the field of disease management, broodstock development, live feed culture and development of fancy strains.
He further added that the quality of freshwater in Andaman Island is really very good and the climatic resemblance to south East Asia, which is very favourable for fancy Guppy fish productions. Later, an exposure visit to the fish hatchery unit was arranged and participants were very much satisfied with the economic potential of the fancy Guppy fish culture.
The overall programme was executed under the chairmanship of Dr.EaknathB.Chakurkar, Director, ICAR-CIARI and was facilitated by Dr. Jai Sunder, Pr. Scientist and, Dr.T.Sujatha, Sr. Scientist as course Directors and Dr.R.KirubaSankar, Dr.K.Saravanan and Mr. J.Praveenraj as Course Co-ordinators of the programme.