A Field day with farmers/fishermen was organised near Chettuva estuary on 15th October, 2023

            ICAR-CCARI, Goa and KUFOS, Kochi jointly organized a field day for the farmers and fishermen in Venkitangu Panchayat near Chettuva estuary, on 15 October 2023 as a part of the ongoing post-doctoral research work.  A team comprising of Dr. Sreekanth GB (Post-Doc-Fellow, Department of AEM, KUFOS), Dr. Jijo Itttoop (Associate Professor, Department of AAHM, KUFOS), Ms. Shahana PA (Project co-ordinator, Department of Fisheries, Thrissur), Bharath S, Amritha Priya (research scholars from KUFOS), Shri. Anandhan and Shri. Mukesh (members of the fisheries co-operative society, Venkitangu) visited about 20 different households of fishermen and farmers (who practice diary, goat farming, poultry, and duckery) and interacted with the farmers to identify the major challenges faced by them. The purpose of the visit was to understand the issues faced by the farmers and fishers belonging to the Scheduled Caste community and interventions required in feed formulation for different livestock, disease management of diary animals and implementing sustainable fish culture activities such as cage culture and pen culture in an integrated way with ducks/poultry in the panchayat. This is a novel venture between KUFOS and Scheduled Caste Sub Plan programme of ICAR-CCARI, Goa, wherein selected beneficiaries would be provided technical and financial support to enhance their livelihood prospects. The team also made an assessment of the issues faced by the fishermen, who indicated that the siltation is the major challenge in the estuary, which reduced the depth of the estuary significantly. As a result, the fish productivity of the estuary is drastically reduced and technological interventions are required for the removal of silt from the estuary. Animal feed supplements were distributed to the livestock/poultry/goat and duck farmers as a part of the programme. The experts also discussed about different schemes of the university, ICAR and Govt. agencies to develop the fisheries and agriculture in the region. As an offshoot of the programme it was suggested to form a self-help-group of fishermen and farmers to promote integrated farming and value addition in agriculture in the region through different schemes of the agencies.