"Though the State has an abundance of rivers, ponds and beels, Assam is yet to attain self-sufficiency in fish production. Owing to a demand of nearly 2 lakh MT annually, the State has to import nearly 15 to 20 thousand MT annually from the neighbouring States to meet the demand.' This was revealed by Nurjamal Sarkar, Minister of Fisheries, while addressing a press meet at the Matsya Mahotsav, 2008, a seminar-cum-workshop on development of fisheries at Shilpgram, Panjabari today. Stressing on the adoption of scientific method of fish farming and involvement of more Self Help Groups in this sector, he claimed that the State Government has taken up many developmental schemes for the fisheries and in the last few years, remarkable growth has been noticed. "The Government has taken up a scheme to develop the abandoned water bodies in nearly 39,000 hectare area of the State and make them useful for fish farming. Moreover, schemes have also been started to give scientific and technical knowledge on fish farming to the local entrepreneurs,' he added. Till date more than 6,000 fish farmers have been given training in the Government training institute and in the year 2007-08, 1,200 fish farmers have been trained. "To give technical knowledge on fish farming to the youth of rural areas, the Government has implemented the Matsya Mitra Scheme. The people trained under this scheme would be provided with a training kit and they would in turn train the local fish farmers of their areas,' said Pawan Kr Borthakur, Commissioner, Fisheries Department. "Among the different fish species found in the State, around 50 species have been identified as ornamental fish, which could capture a good international market. Under a State Government scheme, a project has already been started to produce these ornamental fishes exclusively,' he added. The educated youth are also being trained in aquarium making and aquarium fish farming at Roha Fisheries College, Morigaon. At present, nearly 1,200 SHGs are involved in fish farming. Apart from making these SHGs self-reliant, the Chief Minister's Assam Vikash Yojna for fisheries development has also aimed at granting 147 SHGs Rs two lakh for fish farming in per hectare water body.