Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2023-10-02

Increasing inland fish production through stocking of fish seeds in reservoirs

- The inland fisheries and aquaculture sector plays a significant role in the rural economy of Sri Lanka and highly contributes to the increase of food security and nutrition and for providing employment opportunities. In order to carry out economically effective inland fish production with high growth in the reservoirs of the country, approximately 500 million fish fingerlings should be continuously stocked annually. However, it has not yet been able to fully utilize the potential of the existing reservoirs for culture-based fisheries due to the insufficient fish seed stocking. Although, 230 million fish fingerlings and 80 million freshwater prawn post larvae were initially planned to be stocked in the reservoirs in the year 2023, the said plan had to be changed due to the drying up of the reservoirs owing to the dry weather condition which prevailed in the recent past. Accordingly, taking into account the proposal made by the Minister of Fisheries to secure budgetary provisions required for the implementation of the programme for producing 100 million fish fingerlings and 50 million freshwater prawn post larvae and stocking into the reservoirs during the remaining period of this year, by revising the said plan, the Cabinet approved the provision of additional allocations of Rs. 100 million for the said tasks for the year 2023.