TROUT
FARMING – GEOGRAPHY
News:
A different kettle of
fish: Kashmir wants Europe to taste its trout
What's
in the news?
● Recently,
entrepreneurs in the Jammu & Kashmir Union Territory are eyeing a slice of
the market in Europe with over 1,000 farmers engaged in production.
About
Trout farming:
● It
is farming the trout variety of fishes.
● In
India, high altitude areas in the Himalayas are preferred as a cool environment is the ideal condition
for trout farming.
● It
is native to cold water streams in North
America, but was introduced in other continents for sports fishing and aquaculture.
● The
fish only survive in fast-flowing and
nutritious streams, with water temperature hovering up to 20 degrees
Celsius.
● It
can be farmed all year round in India.
● States with trout farming:
○ Jammu
and Kashmir
○ Himachal
Pradesh
○ Uttarakhand
○ Sikkim
○ Arunachal
Pradesh
● The
shrinking high-altitude lakes and fast-disappearing water bodies due to climate
change is a nascent threat to the trout industry in Kashmir.
● The
government is offering subsidies to set up Recirculating
Aquaculture Systems (RAS), a technology
that uses groundwater to create in-house ponds for trout farming.