As a maiden venture for sea cage and seaweed farming at Puducherry, the Department of Fisheries and Fishermen Welfare, Government of Puducherry has funded a project on ‘Farming of commercially important marine finfishes in sea cages integrated with seaweeds at Puducherry' during April 2025. Awareness, site selection and beneficiary identification was carried out by ICAR-CMFRI during April to May, 2025. To impart knowledge and skill, a training programme on 'Seaweed & Sea cage Farming and IMTA' is being organized by Mandapam Regional Centre of ICAR-CMFRI during 18-20 June, 2025.
The programme was inaugurated by Shri. K. T. Gopinath, Deputy Director of Fisheries & Fishermen Welfare, Ramanathapuram. The programme was presided by Dr. Vinod, K., Principal Scientist & Head, Mandapam Regional Centre of ICAR-CMFRI. Felicitation address was delivered by, Dr. G Tamilmani, Principal Scientist, Mandapam Regional Centre.
A total of 16 fisherwomen, 2 fishermen and four fisheries officials from Puducherry & Karaikal district actively participated in the programme.
The three days training programme will provide hands on experience on methods of seaweed farming, sea cage farming protocols, disease management, industry visit, interaction with successful farmers and marketers and field visit.
The convenor of the training programme was Dr. B. Johnson, Senior Scientist & Principal Investigator of the project. The word of gratitude was proposed by Dr. R. Bavithra, Scientist, Mandapam Regional Centre.