Name : Mr. Anod Charan
Village: Bimblitan, South Andaman
Phone: 9933278148
Family size: 4
Total number of fish ponds: 10
Name : Mr. Anod Charan
Village: Bimblitan, South Andaman
Phone: 9933278148
Family size: 4
Total number of fish ponds: 10
Freshwater food fishes are the most preferred commodity among the setter population across the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Farming of freshwater fishes has incredible scope in the Islands however, many of the ponds are managed extensively with no feed based inputs and lack of knowledge on better management practices. Extensive method of fish farming in the Islands also leads to less productivity and associated issues in culture with majority of the fishes suffering from the ‘pin head’ condition having slender body and broad head denoting the nutritional deficiency. Farmers are also skeptical on the need for high cost of commercial feed for their aquaculture systems.
With this background and in order to promote the feed based aquaculture practices, Dweep-Carp Starter Feed has been formulated by ICAR-CIARI with 30-35% of crude protein and 6-8% of crude lipid content by using the locally available feed ingredients. Further, Mr. Anod Charan, an interested fish farmer in the Bimblitan Village, South Andaman District was identified for the demonstration purpose. He was sensitized on the need for feed based culture practices and upon his interest, a demonstration was conducted on Rohu (Labeo rohita) fishes stocked in his pond. Further, technical backstopping on fish culture and better management practices were provided to him.
With the technical guidance of ICAR-CIARI, the farmer could get the required confidence and proceeded further with the expansion of fish culture by feed based aquaculture practices. The cost of fish feed and its availability at local conditions were found to be encouraging factors for Mr. Anod Charan towards technological adoption.
During the culture period of three months from 270 m2 pond area, he could get a net income of Rs. 6592 with a benefit cost (BC) ratio of 1.73 from the formulated feed which was far better than his previous culture practices.
The Farmer is very much satisfied with the technical support received from ICAR-CIARI and also actively participates in the capacity building programmes on aquaculture to expand his fish culture activities. He is continuing the feed based aquaculture practices in all his fish ponds to augment the fish production. It is reiterated that proper feed and feeding methods with better management practices shall definitely revolutionize the freshwater aquaculture sector and augment the productivity of Island aquaculture.
Contributors : K. Saravanan , T. Sivaramakrishnan , R. Kiruba Sankar & Sreepriya Prakasan