Around 1,400 new ponds will be built in the State within April this year covering around 210 hectares of land which are expected to raise the fish production in the State by around 700 tonnes by next Magh Bihu. The project is part of the flagship Blue Revolution’, under which steps have also been taken to set up 12 fish feed mills of 500 quintal capacity (per day), 10 fish seed hatchery and 75 houses for fishermen, including community halls. It is an integrated approach to boost fish production and attain self sufficiency. We hope to put in place the infrastructure targeted for this year within April. Already 60-70 per cent of the ponds have been completed, nodal officer of State’s Blue Revolution Dr Ramen Barman told The Assam Tribune. The project is funded by the Agriculture Ministry’s Department of Animal Husbandry Dairying & Fisheries (DADF). An amount of Rs 16.41 crore will be spent under the various components of this project within this financial year. The fisheries department has also decided to enforce penal provisions against those beneficiaries and officers who fail to meet the target or are involved in misuse of funds. The average size of the ponds in the private compounds is one bigha, while the community tanks will be of one hectare each. We have earmarked Rs 7 lakh for each hectare of pond. An additional Rs 1.5 lakh will be spent on fish feed and seed per hectare of pond. By next Magh Bihu we hope to get a yield of 3,000-3,500 kg per hectare of new pond, Dr Barman added. The State’s current production is 2.94 lakh tonnes against the demand of 3.36 lakh tones, and the average growth rate in fish production in the last 10 years has been 4.2 per cent. We have now set a target of 6 per cent growth rate from this year. If things go as planned, we hope to raise the production to 3.71 lakh tonnes by 2022 against the projected demand of 3.60 lakh tonnes in that year, the nodal officer said. He said the marketing system is also being strengthened by construction of new cold storages and nine new hygienic markets. The projects are part of a five-year plan. We expect good results by the end of five years, he added.