ICAR-Central Island Agricultural Research Institute (CIARI) for the first time conducted skill development training on “Freshwater Ornamental Fish Culture for Entrepreneurship Development for Nicobarese Youth” at ICAR-CIARI, Garacharma, on February 23–25, 2024. The training was conducted under the Schedule Tribe Component in association with NABARD, Port Blair, and DST, New Delhi under the chairmanship of Dr. E. B. Chakurkar, Director, ICAR-CIARI, Port Blair.
During the three-day, the participants were trained on various aspects like selection of candidate ornamental fishes, breeding, aquascaping, health management, tank fabrication, live feeds, and feeding and hatchery management. Dr. S.K. Zamir Ahmed, Head, Division of Fisheries, briefed about the business opportunities of ornamental fish farming in the Islands in his opening remarks. Dr. J. Praveenraj, Scientist and Course Director, along with Course Coordinators Dr. K. Saravanan, Dr. R. Kiruba Sankar, Shri..D.Karunakaran and Dr. Chittaranjan Raul imparted various skill development sessions on ornamental fish farming during the three-day programme. The technical and practical sessions were followed by an exposure visit to a farmer field and an aquarium retail outlet. A total of 49 participants, comprising 29 females and 20 males representing different villages of Car Nicobar attended the training programme which received a very positive feedback from the participants.