Madhubani, Jan. 18: Chief minister Nitish Kumar has said Bihar could become self-reliant in fish production in two-three years and would not have to depend on Andhra Pradesh to meet the daily demand.

Nitish said this during his visit to the Mithila Matasaya Hatchery at Tamuria village under Lakhnaur block in the district as part of the 11th leg of his Seva Yatra.

The chief minister, who stayed in the plant for around 40 minutes, sought detailed information about the processing of fish seeds and inspected all wings of the hatchery plant last evening.

He also spoke to the proprietor of the fish seeds processing unit, Kapileshwar Mukhiya, who told the chief minister the way the plant functioned and difficulties it has to face. He showed Nitish the ponds adjacent to the hatchery unit.

After listening to the problems, the chief minister directed the officials concerned to take Mukhiya to the state capital in March and also assured him of help.

“We have told the chief minister about the problems that come in the way of running the fish seeds processing unit. We asked him to set up a fisheries laboratory either in Darbhanga or Madhubani so that experts could diagnose the diseases of fishes. We suffer huge losses as fishes die in the pond. We produce around 2 crore fish seeds every year and these go to different districts of the state apart from Nepal,” Mukhiya told The Telegraph.

The hatchery has been functioning since 1992.