Fishery Sector Of Assam: Recent Trends And Prospects

The North-Eastern state of Assam is famous for its scenic beauty and unique natural endowments. The state has two major rivers, Brahmaputra and Barak Rivers along with its tributaries. Thus after agricultural activities, fishery activities play a very significant role in the generation of income and employment opportunities especially in the rural areas of the state. In the year 2019-20, the state’s production of fish seeds in has also increased by 67% and contributes around 18.24% in the total production of fish seeds production of the country. Again, the country’s fish production is around 104.37 lakh tonnes, while the state of Assam produced 3.73 lakh tonnes contributing only 3.57% of total fish production of the country.The state also ranks 5th position in the consumption of fish. The fishery resources of the state include rivers and canals, medium and large reservoirs, beels or ox bow lakes or derelict water, any other rivers and canals (paddy) covering area of around 482000, 1096, 77250, 154650 and 462382 hectares respectively. Hence, this paper is an effort to show the recent trends in the fishery sector of the state and suggest some measures for the overall development of the sector.