Pond Water Fish Farming

Pond Fish Farming
	Fish Farming is an age old activity and in practice from ancient times. The concept of composite fish culture was developed by ICAR in late seventies under a coordinated composite fish culture project. This comprises the culture of 3 indigenous species of fish viz. rohu, catla and mrigal and 3 exotic fish i.e silver carp, grass carp and common carp, keeping in view their different food habit and habitat. This practice has been very well accepted by the farmers of Haryana as its cultural practices are analogous to agriculture. The successful fish culture requires ploughing of pond, addition of manure, stocking of fish seed; eradication of unwanted aquatic plants and animals, watering the pond; harvesting the crop and marketing of the produce. The fish culture technologies and economics are simple and understandable to the fish farmers. To produce one kilogram fish, the requirements are:- - one cubic meter water - one kilogram manure and 100 gm inorganic fertilizer - one kilogram supplementary feed - and one year time Cost of production of fish is Rs. 18/kg and the sale price on an average is Rs.50/- per kg. A net profit of Rs.180000 per hectare per year is obtained, The pond fish culture practice is being adopted by farmers in all the districts of the state. There are 18000 fish culture units having an area of more than 16921.69 hectares in the state. The ownership of these ponds vested with the panchayats. Panchayat leases out their ponds to the farmer's for fish farming. These village ponds are generally visited by cattle for drinking water. The cattle refuse dung and urine in the pond. The organic waste released by the cattle are recycled into manure and help in the production of plankton which is basic food for fish. Thus all the village fish culture ponds in Haryana are the good example of fish cum cattle farming. With the passage of time, the farmers have modified the technologies as per the need. Generally Rohu,catla, mrigal and common carp are used for culture. The stocking density is kept at 20000 fish seed per hectare. Farmers have adopted the technique of multiple harvesting. which give better returns. Govt. provides 20% subsidy to general category while 25% to scheduled caste fish farmers for excavation of new pond/ renovation of old pond and fisheries inputs. Economics of Fish Farming a) Expenditure Rs. Construction of Pond,Water Supply Channel, Installation of Tubewell/Renovation/Lease Amount 25000 Electricity & Water charges 17500 Cost of 250Kg Lime 1000 20000 Fish Seeds 1500 Organic Fertilizer 10000 Inorganic Fertilizer 5000 Supplimentry feed 30000 Medicine, Fishing, Watch & Ward 10000 TOTAL EXPENDITURE 100000 b) Income Sale of 6000 KG Fish @ 50 KG at pond site 300000 c) Net Income (B-A) 200000 Note:- The Income may vary on the productivity and market price of a pond