By Parvaiz Bhat
Srinagar- A new study conducted by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and WorldFish, in collaboration with several key institutions, has found that fish consumption in India has increased significantly with Jammu and Kashmir leading the fish consumption across India with a remarkable increase.
The study, Fish Consumption in India: Patterns and Trends, sheds light on the diverse fish consumption patterns across different states and provides valuable insights into the socioeconomic factors, cultural shifts, economic growth, and potential for the fisheries sector.
India has observed a notable transformation in non-vegetarian food consumption patterns, with a significant uptick in the population including fish in their diet climbing to 72 percent in 2021 from 66 percent in 2005, the study says. In the case of Jammu and Kashmir, fish consumption among the population has jumped from 61 percent in 2005 to 82 percent in 2021, the study highlights adding that it is the highest increase in percentage points in any state or union territory in the country.
“There was a remarkable increase in the proportion of people eating fish in most of the states, led by Jammu and Kashmir (20.9 percentage points), with the exception of Punjab where it decreased (3.9 percentage points),” the study says.
Boosted incomes of people, investments in aquaculture development and improvement in road and other developmental infrastructure is said to be the important reasons for increased consumption in Jammu & Kashmir.
“Lot of investments over last two decades on road and rail infrastructure to connect nook and corners of Kashmir with mainland might have directly increased the supply of fish along with other food commodities from other parts of the country thus increasing the fish availability & accessibility,” WorldFish Country Lead for India, Arun Padiyar, told Kashmir Observer.
Also, he said, there were increased private and government investments in aquaculture development, especially in the last one decade in Kashmir, which might have led to an increase in local production of fish, especially cold water fishes such as Trout.
Meanwhile, data from Jammu and Kashmir’s Fisheries Department also suggests that fish production and consumption in the region is constantly increasing. For example, fish production in Jammu & Kashmir has increased from 21 tonnes in 2019-20 to 27 tonnes in 2022-23 while the number of private fish units established in the private sector have increased from 1607 in 2019-20 to 2,366 in 2022-23.
According to the Jammu & Kashmir Fisheries Department, the department has been constantly making efforts for overall development of fisheries in the region, especially to promote Culture Fisheries by utilizing all the available resources to boost fish production. For example, by adopting the latest technology of fish farming such as composite fish culture of Indian major carps and exotic carps and produce quality trout seed for rearing trout fish.
Promoting fish culture in the private sector to provide avenues of earnings to the educated unemployed youth is one of the important focus areas, according to the information made available online by the department.
According to a research study by Sauliheen Qadri, Kashmir is rich in fishery resources, offering great potential in fish production for domestic consumption and export. “The enormous resources of water in the shape of lakes, wetlands, ponds, streams, springs and rivers, due to their peculiar natural conditions, are prime centres of cold-water fisheries and thus have a major contribution in the development of fisheries in this region,” Qadri’s study notes and adds that the fish biodiversity of Kashmir is quite varying and mainly represented by the group Schizothoracine.
According to the study, all lakes and rivers of Kashmir play a great role in the social, cultural and economic status of the valley, however, “due to overexploitation of the natural resources following human interferences, these water bodies have come under serious threat of depletion.” The unabated pollution, the study says, has resulted in the decline of some native fish species from the water bodies. Pollution and degradation of aquatic resources has been reported to be one of the major causes of the decline in fish diversity and density.
The Jammu and Kashmir Fisheries Act has a number of provisions for protection, conservation and development of fisheries in the region. However, environmental activists in recent years have highlighted a number of issues which are threatening the existence of fish resources in Jammu and Kashmir.
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