Imphal 29 Jan by James Khangenbam
Manipur is a hotspot in terms of fish production. The famous fresh water lake Loktak supplies most of the fishes for the State and it is also being exported to neighbouring States. Manipuri’s eat lots of fishes and most of the boiled vegetable curries are incomplete without fermented and dry fish. On a single day a family consumes minimum of 50 grams dry fish as side dish or part of a curry. Ima Market and most of the markets in the valley districts sales fresh fishes. Fish curry remains the favorite curry. Several types of local fishes are also eaten for good health at the time of recovering from illness. The State also imports sea fishes from other States of India. Besides several types of fishes also comes from the neighboring country Myanmar.
Let’s us take a look at two of the fish festivals the State Government organizes for two major festivals where fishes are offered to local deity and fishes are served as main course in a cultural feast in every home.
Emoinu Fish Festival 2023
The first Emoinu Fish Festival, 2023 organized by the Department of Fishery at Hapta Kangjeibung on the day of Emoinu Festival registered sale of 51,362 Kgs of different species of fish including 2600 kgs of home grown Meitei Sareng. Fish farmers of Bishnupur district contributed the highest production with 17,709 Kgs followed by Imphal West district with 14,218 Kgs and Thoubal district with 9009 Kgs.
A significant outcome of Emoinu Fish Festival, 2023 is that the total proceeds accrued from the sale of fish accounted for Rs 1.30 crore which is a spectacular achievement for the fish farmers and Fishery Department.
Emoinu Fish Festival witnessed departmental stalls of Agriculture, Horticulture, MOMA, Forest and various start-ups catering to agro and allied products like organic black rice, ginger, turmeric, fresh seasonal vegetables, value added local fruits, beverages, etc which provided a shopping spree and extravaganza to the visitors.
Ningol Chakouba Fish Festival 2022
Around 200 fish farmers from 16 different districts participated in the fish fair. Manipur government arranged 155 stalls for the participants free of cost and the travel allowance for fish farmers were reimbursed. Apart from common fish varieties easily available in the market, indigenous fishes like Pengba/Khabak; Ngaton; Ngahei; Ukabi (Anabus); Porom (Murrel) and Tunghanbi (Tilapia) were on sale during the fish fair.
Speaking at the festival, the fishery minister Dingo opined that fish production has increased considerably when compared to previous years. The department has managed to produce 1.25 lakh kg this year against the previous year’s requirement of 90,000 kgs. The minister also stated that with the increasing number of fish farmers and the adoption of new technologies, the state can become self-sufficient in fish farming by 2005 Director of, department of fisheries, Heisnam Balkrishna Singh said the department fixed reasonable fish prices especially for the fish fair.
For promotion of good yield and to encourage fish production in the State competition are held annually and the first prize winner, second and third prize winners were awarded a cash prize of Rs 1 Lakh, Rs 70,000 and Rs 50,000 respectively.
The highest producer of indigenous fish was awarded a cash prize of Rs 20,000 and 20 consolation prizes worth Rs 10,000 were also given to the fisherman.
