Patna:Pledging to usher in a rainbow revolution in Bihar, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today identified fisheries as a key sector for growth and asked fishermen to adopt new techniques to increase output.

Addressing an event on the occasion of ‘Fisherman Day’, he said the state government has launched an agriculture roadmap to usher in rainbow revolution in Bihar in which animal husbandry, fishery and hatchery have been identified as sectors for growth in addition to traditional farm activities.

Fishery in particular has tremendous potential for growth, Kumar said and asked fishermen to employ new techniques to increase production.

Bihar used to produce 2.68 lakh metric tonne of fish in 2004-05 which was not adequate to meet the domestic demand and was met by supplies from Andhra Pradesh.

“Our fishermen then did not employ new techniques to enhance production of fisheries,” he said adding the state government agriculture roadmap of 2008 identified fishery as a key sector for growth.

Fishermen were sent for training at the expenditure of the state government to national institutes outside the state, where measures were taken for restoration of ponds and water bodies suited for fish farming. Fish seed was made available to the fishermen to boost production, Kumar said.

The fish output has now increased to 5.7 lakh metric tonne. As a result of the state government’s sustained efforts Bihar has broken into the league of top four states in terms of production of sweetwater fish, he said.

The chief minister also urged the fishermen to augment fish production to meet the eight lakh metric-tonne target under the agriculture roadmap 2012-17.

He also announced a proposal to set up an animal science university in Patna where fisheries will be a thrust area for study and said animal science colleges will be set up wherever required in addition to research centres.

On the welfare of fishermen, Kumar said the state commission for fishermen is being re-organised to redress their problems.