Ans: Fisheries Industry:
. Fishing and fish farming:
Fishing and Fish farming industries are good source of foreign exchange
earnings. These industries Provide employment to hundreds of thousands of
labourers, and produce delicious and nourishing food.. A Fisheries Development
Commissioner (FDC) oversees the matters relating to fishing and fish farming.
This office is a subsidiary of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture. According to
statistics given by the UN agency, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO),
Pakistan earns one percent of its GDP from fish farming and fish trading. One
percent of Pakistan’s total labour force is employed in fishing and fish farming
industry. According to the FAO claim this industry is growing very rapidly in
Pakistan. Fish is procured from three major sources:
. Sea Fishing:
Pakistan’s coastline is 1046 km (approximately 650 miles) long. It can be
divided into two parts, Sindh coast and Makran (Balochistan) coast. Millions
of fishermen live on these coasts. A modern fishing harbour has been set up
near Karachi with a basic purpose to facilitate the fishing and fishing trade.
This harbour houses latest facilities offish storage, processing and trading.
. Inland or Fresh-Water-Fishing:
Fresh water fishing means, catching fish from rivers and lakes, with the help
of nets, Lakes and dhands (natural ponds) are main fishing sources in the
province of Sindh. The total area of fresh-water lakes in Pakistan is 110,000
hectares, out of this 101,000 hectares lies in the province of Sindh. Thatta,
Kotri and Sukkur are the major fishing centers of Sindh. Apart from this many
display centers and hatcheries have been set up at different places, Hiran
Minar Sheikhupura is one example. Training centres for fish farmers and
fishermen are also operating in Lahore and Karachi.
. Fish Farming
Fisheries departments were instituted in all the low provinces
Vest after independence but farming in man made psh ponds and
as 1965. According to the UN Food and Fanouture Organization (Fk
hectares of land. These ponds are scattered all over the couARY FAR
ners are approximately 19000 fish ponds in Pakistan, Gosting
departments established in all the four provinces impert valuate (chec
knowledge to the private sector fish farmers, which they spy
farming practices. In Sindh Thetta, Badin and Dadu are the main contess
fish farming Shekupura, Gurenviste and allock districts in the Puny
Dera Ismail Khan, Kohet, Marden, Swabi and Abbottabad districts of Key
are the main centres of fish farming. Farms of the highly valuable sold wate
fish trout have been set up in Chitraal, Swet, Dir, Malakand and Manssa.