Status and economy of community fish farming in rural Odisha

An investigation on community fish farming and its economy was carried out in eighty-one randomly chosen typical community fish ponds from two representative districts (Khurda and Puri) of rural Odisha. Study reveals a low level of technological adoption of aquaculture with very traditional and extensive methods of carp culture, which may be termed as rural aquaculture. The lease arrangement was the predominant institutional arrangement with lease period of 1, 3 and 5 years and the respective fish production of 769, 930 and 1634 kg ha(-1)yr(-1). It was found that the system responded quite well to the changes in the technology and management. The impact of a few management measures was found to be positive on the fish productivity improvement. Presence of aquatic macrophytes, weed and predatory fishes, under-dose manure and fertilizer application and/or no use of manure and fertilizer, stocking of small size fish seed in unprepared ponds, under feeding and/or not feeding to fish had adverse effect on fish production and net income generation in village community ponds. There was significant increase in fish production (p<0.05) by stocking fingerlings (large size fish seed) instead of stocking fry, and by feeding fish with rice bran/ ground nut oil cake (GNOC). Share of feed to mean expenditure was found to be 7% only, indicating poor feed input use in community fish ponds. Expenditure on labour charge for community based aquaculture management was 48%, suggesting labour intensive rather than feed intensive fish farming. Average cost of fish production was (sic) 37 kg(-1); net return on expenditure was 134.4% with profitability index of 1.34 in spite of poor pond management and less input uses, indicating it as a highly profitable venture for community farmers. For horizontal expansion of aquaculture in rural area, techno-input intensification is recommended and the socio-political problems need to be mitigated. This may lead to enhanced fish production from community ponds in order to provide family income, self employment, improvement of the livelihood and nutritional security of rural poor.