Case6-January-2013
Water theme of DHAN Collective (www.dhan.org) is giving importance to conservation of minor rainfed water bodies such as Tanks and Ponds receive water through rain water runoff during South west and North east monsoon period, only from their free catchments area without any other supplemental source. Normally these water resources are used for irrigation as well as for percolation. Water holding capacity or water available duration of these tanks is three to seven months. Normally fishing of natural stock is the longestablished practice in small scale water bodies and slowly that has changing in to rearing of fishes. Even though this water ecosystem has utilized for irrigation, percolation and domestic purposes, fishery activity is given least importance in these water bodies due to the uncertainty in water availability.
DHAN is giving importance to develop community Inland fisheries development in these rural minor rainfed water bodies by providing “dead storage” in these water bodies. Dead Storage is the stored water below the sill level of Sluice which cannot be taken by gravitational force for irrigation. This will help to store water for two more months which help to rear fishes additional for two months and also will help to cattle and mulch animals as drinking water source.
Poly culture technique is adopted in rainfed tanks by stocking fish seeds of carps and Murrel. The seeds of Murrel are naturally collected seeds and the carps are Catla, Rohu, Mrigal, common carp, silver carp and grass carp. Apart from these, we have stocked Pangasius and Iridescent or Stripped Shark species also. Composite fish culture technique is adopted in village ponds and Farm ponds.
Inland Fishery in tanks and Ponds are in growth phase in a steady and sustainable manner. The success in fish rearing was achieved by selecting suitable fish varieties with enough number of seeds based on the nature of water bodies. We have practiced extensive and semi intensive ways of rearing depend upon the water and natural food availability in the selected water bodies. Supplementary feeding, G’nut oil cake and rice bran, is also practiced to achieve maximum growth within the limited period. The average success rate of this activity is around 60%. The details of Tanks and Ponds are given in below chart (excluding the small water storage structure and household ponds which are taken up more than 2000 nos)
Normally rainfed tanks are considered as non potential for Pisciculture due to uncertainty of available water for fisheries and the available duration varies from three to ten months that also depends upon the maintance of tanks and ponds. Due to that we have categorized the tanks and ponds, based on water available duration and based on the categorization, techniques are adopted such as intensive, semi intensive and extensive. The major criteria taken up for categorization are Water available duration which is calculated with minimum of five feet depth. This helped the farmers to identify the potential water bodies and chosen opt technique.
Total feasible tanks are 542 out of 1200 in our working area.
Awareness creation on Inland fish rearing was given more important to develop this activity. Awareness creation made to Vayalagam leaders, People workers, Vayalagam members and Professionals. Through formal discussion at various events with Community and leaders on fish rearing, clarifying their doubts and also explaining the advantages of fish rearing activity has created well awareness on this activity at all level and also Vayalagam members showed their interest in this activity. More than 45 awareness programmes conducted exclusively as well as combined with other events.
After creating awareness, skill building trainings were conducted to People workers and members on fish rearing activity. We have adopted composite fish culture, simple and effective technique in fish rearing. Selection & preparation of water bodies, Manuring, Fish seed selection and Procuring, Stocking and feeding, Harvest and sustainability are given importance during the training. More than 50 trainings were organized and more than 500 members gained knowledge on fish rearing in commons which helped to take up fish rearing in large scale even during the drought year.
Suitable tanks and ponds are identified at block level and supported seed money for initiating fish rearing in tanks and ponds by Vayalagams. This initiation started with 35 water bodies in 2006 and reached maximum of more than 250 water bodies in a year, fish rearing was taken up. The results are highly encouraged the growth of this activity to reach more in numbers within short period.
The success rate and the income depend upon various factors.
“Rich food for poor people”- “Cheapest protein for the poor”
Food security is a fundamental dimension of poverty. People who are chronically poor usually lack access to adequate food. Malnutrition negatively affects people’s working and learning capacity, and may affect vulnerable groups living just above the poverty threshold, causing them to enter the ranks of the poor. Eliminating hunger and malnutrition, therefore, is a precondition for the eradication of poverty. Fish, as a source of “rich food for poor people”, can play an important role in improving food security and nutritional status. Fish are an excellent source of high-quality protein and other nutrients vital to good health, including iron, calcium, potassium, vitamin A, and iodine.
Fish contains fatty acids that aid fetal brain development and cognitive abilities critical for effective learning. Also, the nutritional benefits of fish lower the risk of low birth weight in infants, a major factor in infant mortality. Women who consume fish regularly as part of their diets enjoy better health and produce stronger babies. The year wise success rate is given in below table and the success differs for each year due to lack of water availability and also the seed quality.
Most small-scale fishers are in developing countries and many live in communities characterized by poverty and food insecurity. Small-scale fishing communities are faced with an array of serious problems, including overexploitation and depletion of resources, lack of alternative sources of employment, rapid population growth, migration of populations, displacement in coastal areas due to industrial development and tourism, pollution and environmental degradation and conflicts with large commercial fishing operations. However, small-scale fisheries are critical for food security and poverty alleviation in many countries.
At the global level, consumption of fish as food has doubled since 1973 and the developing world has been responsible for over 90 percent of this growth, much of it from small-scale fisheries, especially small-scale aquaculture but also freshwater capture fisheries. Fifty percent of all food fish originates from small-scale fisheries, and almost all fish from small-scale fisheries is used for food.
The most direct contribution of fishing activity to food security at the household level is through consumption of the household’s catch. Certainly for many poor households engaged in full-time, seasonal or occasional small-scale fishing activities, such contributions are crucial to individual/household food security. The percentage of total household catch that is consumed by the household varies greatly, however, and may depend on both the level of commercialization in the fishery and the level of poverty in the household.
Globally, India stands at third position in the total production and second position in production of farmed fish. But, the per capita availability of India stands at 9 Kgs/year against the WHO standard of 11.2 Kgs/year. When compared to developed countries, India is far behind in fish consumption as around 12 kgs per year approximately. Within India, coastal community and people in West Bengal are consuming more fishes than rural areas especially in interior & remote villages. Access to this protein rich food is a major issue in remote villages. Equity for fish availability throughout the country needs focus.
Inland fishery development in India is picking up in faster manner and different stakeholders plays major role in development. Policy on inland fishery development is being adopted by different stakeholders. Right from Central government, State government, Fish Farmers Development agency, National Fisheries Development Board, KVKs, NABARD, Fisheries & Research Institutes supported by ICAR, MPEDA, NGOs, and Community are the Major stakeholders in developing inland fishery in India. Each stakeholder is having their own policy for developing inland fisheries in India. Central government has its own policy, different states having their own policy, NFDB having its own policy on commercial inland aquaculture development. The overall goal is increasing the fishery activity in both ways, i.e. horizontal and vertical growth in India. The last fifty years aquaculture show tremendous improvement in quantitative and qualitative wise when compared to marine fishery production. India is having vast area for inland fishery development and holding second position in aquaculture production next to China. But if you see the biomass production per hectare we are non comparable to China and also they are producing tenfold more than that of India. That made possible by diversifying and intensifying the activity i.e. new technology, new species, new technique and growth friendly policy and involvement of community.