Shillong, Nov 6: From next year, the state government will implement the Meghalaya State Aqua-culture Mission (MSAM) 2.0 for five years to improve fish production in the state.

The MSAM 2.0 will be implemented with effect from April 1, 2019.

Under the MSAM 1.0, the Fisheries Department has been able to create 19,011 new fishery beneficiaries with 1900 hectares of water area.

During the MSAM 1.0, the government had invested Rs 157 crore.

The MSAM 1.0 was launched on March 5, 2012 and the total fish production increased from 4, 799 MT to 11, 961 MT by end of 2017-18.

Additional Chief Secretary (Fisheries), K.N Kumar said that Fisheries department needed some more time to achieve the target of producing 27, 000 MT of fish to become self sufficient.

He also said that the Fisheries department has now emerged as a major department compared to the past years.

Under MSAM 1.0, 14 small scale hatcheries, 12 eco hatcheries and 3 fish feed mills came up.

According to Kumar, this led to the increase in fish feed production from 3.2 million in 2012 to 9.9 million during 2017-18.

“The MSAM 1.0 was a kind of lesson, and the MSAM 2.0 will be implemented with much more precision and sophistication,” Kumar said, adding that pending works under MSAM 1.0 should be completed before the commencement of the MSAM 2.0