The fisheries department has been busy arranging study tours for fishermen to other parts of the country. Fishermen from Velsao were taken to Chennai to study crab farming, while a team from Chapora visited Karnataka and Kerala to get first-hand experience in mussel farming and study infrastructure and administrative setups in ports. Presently, a delegation of 15 fishermen from Betul are in Gujarat and they will visit oceanariums, fish farms and ports. Hopefully, they will return enlightened. Upgradation of knowledge takes place through interactions and those in the academic world understand the value of meeting experts from other parts of the country and the world better than others. The idea behind the tours is to give fishermen the opportunity to observe how the community operates in other parts of the country and ascertain how practices elsewhere could be utilized to upgrade skills, add value to products or increase yields. Goa has been experimenting with growing fish in cages, but this effort is still in its infancy. Elsewhere in the country, fishermen have moved ahead in this area to set up large fish farms with far more success. There is something to learn. The tours, may or may not yield results immediately, but they are necessary to build stronger links with the fishing communities elsewhere so that exchange of ideas, experiences and techniques is made more easy.
