Teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime -A success story from Birbhum

If you give a man a fish he is hungry again in an hour. If you teach him to catch a fish you do him a good turn. This proverb seems to be holding good in Mouza cum village Ranigram in Northen part of Rajnagar Block of Birbhum district. The place abounds in water bodies and 32 ponds and tanks of 1.5 bigha and larger sizes are now being used to irrigate crops, rear livestock, and provide much needed drinking water to the communities. The water bodies are also being used to breed fishes, a rich source of nutrition for the households and an alternate livelihood option for the rural households. With a daily demand of around eight quintals of fish in the nearby market of Sainthia, over 60 percent of which is sourced from outside, the potential of this activity to enhance local incomes is enormous.

FFS mode of training for FIG members

 Things were not like this till a few years ago. These water bodies were mostly seasonal in nature and used to dry up during the summers. The change was ushered in through the construction of a check dam on the river Bakreswar during 2014-15 under WBADMIP. This was followed by establishing the minor irrigation scheme to enhance the productivity of agricultural crops. A fisheries scheme has now been initiated to demonstrate its potential through composite fish culture comprising six species in a perennial water body of three bighas with an average water depth of five feet. Named Mayra bundh, this reservoir was established in March 2016 with an expenditure  of         INR 114,800.  

During release (March, 2016)		At present (26th Aug, 2016)
Catla	30gm	650-700gm
Silver carp	50gm	800-1250gm
Rohu	30gm	350-500gm
Grass carp	40gm	800-1500gm
Mrigel	20gm	250-350gm
Common carp	25gm	400-750gm

Prior to this intervention under WBADMIP, the productivity of fish in the village was around 7-8q/ha a year which now has nearly doubled. The project provided around 4,000 fingerlings of good size, weight and sound health. The productivity was enhanced by following scientific practices of management of fish-feed and water quality. Mobilization and building capacities of the local communities through the FFS played a critical role in this. Regular monitoring by PPP Mr. Tirtha Bhattacharya and specialist Mr. Durgesh Kumar contributed to the success of this initiative.

Reaping the benefits

The local communities have participated in this change and are now raising the bar for the coming season – increase productivity to 25 quintals from this water body. They also are improvising their approach to deal with a fresh challenge in the form of mortality of silver carp, which is a surface habitat fish. Since medical remedies for solving this problem was not available locally, trial and error led to the discovery that application of lime reduces the mortality rate! This is a fine example of learning by doing which has been fostered by the project. The news of the success of fish culture is spreading fast and neighbouring villages are now interested to learn from the lessons in Mouza. It is expected that this initiative led by the change makers in the village will have soon expand to other areas across the district.