PMMSY Projects Worth Rs 375 Lakh for Sikkim Fisheries

Sikkim's fisheries are about to get a national push with an organic label attached. The Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Rajiv Ranjan Singh, also known as Lalan Singh, is visiting the Gangtok and Mangan districts of Sikkim on 2 and 3 November 2026, and the visit carries a set of launches for the sector.

What is to be launched

The Minister is to release a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for organic fish farming, inaugurate projects worth Rs 375 lakh under the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY), review the state's fisheries development work and meet fish farmers. He is also to hand out Kisan Credit Cards to fish farmers and cheques under the state's Mukhya Mantri Matsya Utpadan Yojana (MMMUY).

Clusters, the method being used

The government has taken a cluster-based route to developing the fisheries value chain, so that production, processing, value addition and marketing are built up together inside identified geographical areas. Under PMMSY, 34 fisheries production and processing clusters have been notified across the country, and these include organic fisheries clusters in Sikkim and Meghalaya. The idea is that aggregation and value addition, backed by stronger market links, help differentiated and high value fishery products fetch better prices for the farmer.

On the ground in Mangan

The Minister is to visit the Live Fish Vending Centre at Mangshila and meet the Fish Farmers' Cooperative Society there to understand what is needed in fish marketing and cooperative work. Fisheries development and PMMSY interventions are to be reviewed at the DAC in Mangan, with feedback taken from those implementing them. The visit is part of a structured arrangement for periodic visits by Union Ministers to the Northeastern Region, set up to watch how development programmes are working and to gather feedback from the field.

Why the Northeast

The region has plentiful freshwater resources, varied aquatic ecosystems and rich biodiversity, which makes it suited to sustainable and high value fisheries and aquaculture. Certification, traceability, aggregation, processing and value addition, tied to the requirements of export markets, are seen as the way to make the region a hub for certified organic and premium fishery products, improving what farmers earn and strengthening livelihoods along the chain. Officers of the Government of Sikkim, the district administration at Mangan, fisheries departments, ICAR fisheries institutes, cooperative societies and farmer producer organisations are to take part.