One day workshop on ‘Scientific Fish Culture & Marketing Strategies’ was held today at SMELC Building here. The workshop was organised asa part of the ongoing 2 nd Aqua Fest 2017’ which started on March 28. The weeklong event is organised by Department of Fisheries in collaboration with district administration and IBDLP, Basin Development Unit, Tura. The thematic workshop was attended by partners from all blocks of West Garo Hills, representatives of SHGs and agencies dealing in fishery sector and the IBDLP representatives and volunteers. In the keynote address, RBR Marak, Supt. of Fisheries, West Garo Hills said that state of Meghalaya as a whole and Garo Hills in particular has huge potential with its vast inland fishery resources which offers tremendous scope for developing the fisheries sector. He informed that the department with the existing schemes and special launched programmes under Meghalaya State Aquaculture Mission and Integrated Basin Development & Livelihood Promotion Programme (IBDLP) has been able to reach to over 3000 partners at different stages of intervention under fishery sector. Mentioning on MSAM (Meghalaya State Aquaculture Mission), Marak said that several programmes like Special Plan Assistance (SPA), Value Chain Management Programme, Rastriya Krishi Vikas Yojna (RKVY), Area Expansion under community water body and promotion of fish sanctuaries and eco-hatcheries have been successfully created. He added that the partners need to be serious about the interventions and programmes as aquaculture is one of the fast developing sectors in the economy. Interaction with partners registered under fishery was facilitated by Moalong K. Marak, Fishery Officer, West Garo Hills wherein he presented a brief note on the existing scenario of fish farming in Garo Hills. During the discussion farmers also shared the issues and problems with related to fish practices and markets. An interactive session and presentation on ‘Livelihood, Value Addition, Markets & Future Prospects’ was taken up by V. Valentine Hembrom, DPM-IBDLP/MeghaLAMP West Garo Hills where conveyed to the fish entrepreneurs that the sector can only get its due recognition only when they are willing to take up risk and venture in the sector. In his presentation, he covered components on the markets, value addition of the fish products and the future prospects in the sector. He also briefed the audience on the knowledge about IBDLP missions and IFAD funded project on Meghalaya Livelihood Access to Markets Project (MeghaLAMP). He invited all the entrepreneurs to take up initiatives towards making the state self –sufficient for production of fish