Telangana scripts success story in fisheries

Hyderabad: Telangana’s success story in fisheries came about following various measures taken by the State government. Subsequently, the seed stocking activity rose by 350 per cent from 3,939 water bodies in 2016-17 to 17,684 water bodies in 2020-21. In the initial years, the focus was on large water bodies with stable WSA and then as more and more WSA stabilization took place, smaller water bodies started to get covered under free stocking activities.

As a result of which, in the same period, the quantum of seedling stocked rose from 2,785 lakh to 6,687 lakh indicating a rise of 140 per cent. The cost of seedling stocked rose from Rs 2,246 lakh to Rs 5,180 lakh indicating a rise of 131 per cent, Mangalapalli Vishweshwer, a fisheries researcher who has done extensive studies on the sector, said.

With irrigation projects coming to fruition, the quantum of water available and hence WSA has also been increasing due to creation of newer water bodies along with stabilization of existing ones. There is every possibility that Telangana’s stocking and hence fish production will go up in future.

Fish production and value of produce
Fish production in the five years has gone up by 80 per cent from 1.94 lakh tonnes to 3.49 lakh tonnes. The value of the fish produced in the same period has gone up by 132 per cent from Rs 1,356.12 crore to Rs 3,141.0 crore.

Earlier, a large part of this value creation was taken away by the middlemen. Over this five year period, the free fingerling stocking has considerably loosened the grip of the middlemen resulting in retention of this growing value by FCS members who belong to the fishermen community.

This is evident in the significant rise in incomes at society level and even at individual member level, he said.

Falling average yield – Changing fingerling mix
In the initial stages of stocking, the focus was on larger water bodies where the fingerling stocked was 100 mm. Given the size of the fingerlings, the mortality rates were relatively lower and the growth was much faster. But as more water bodies were brought under the ambit of fingerlings, there was no choice but to stock 30-40 mm fingerlings which have higher mortality rate and longer gestation period to gain gram weightage.

Since harvests typically happen on a yearly cycle for all kinds’ fingerlings, the average yield had only one way to go which is downwards. This is neither abnormal nor unexpected.

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