Climate Smart Aquaculture- Enhancing livelihood and nutrition in the ecologically vulnerable western districts of the state though Monosex Tilapia culture.

                        The red lateritic belt  comprising of 5 Western Districts i.e Purulia, Birbhum, Bankura, Paschim Medinipur and Jhargram are considered to be the most ecologically vulnerable belt in the state. The belt is characterised by soil profile with poor water holding capacity, deficit rainfall and wide range between maximum and minimum temperatures. 

   Large part of the belt are still rainfed due to unavailability of irrigation resulting in very low cropping intensity. Weather variability is further posing threat to the kharif season which is dominated by paddy, a staple food in the state.

     Transforming rainfed agriculture to irrigated undertaken by WBADMI Project has empowered the farmers not only to ensure their kharif cultivation but also to take up high value crops during Rabi. However, the high value crops which are predominantly vegetables also comes with higher production cost and distress sale. So in order to stabilise the income of the small and marginal farm holders, the diversification process has to be more extended . This has what been the driving force behind inclusion of fish farming in the project command areas. The all weather demand for various fish species in the local market has made fish farming a very lucrative economic activity particularly in areas with existing water bodies where lack of appropriate scientific practice had been giving very low yield. Promotion of technologies such as spawn to fingerling culture, Desi Magur Hatchery, Culture of Indian Major Carps(IMC), Small nutritional fish species, Prawn culture etc. through  community mobilisation and  intensive participatory methods thereafter has increased the per hectare farm return by more than 300%.in the project areas.

   Despite the reliability in fisheries to bring stability to the farm income,  the production as well as growth of many fish species are still susceptible to several elements of climate change such as temperature rise, erratic seasonal rainfall, water stress and extreme climatic events. The red lateritic agroclimatic zone prevalent in the western districts of Bengal experience all the above mentioned elements thus bringing the necessity of climate smart adaptation and mitigation strategies  to increase the resilience and adaptive capacity of communities as well as ecosystem. In this regard Climate smart adaptations such as use of tarpaulin/tank ponds, adjusting time of stocking and introduction of climate smart stocked fish species  are being emphasised from the project to upscale the adaptive capacities of the community in the project areas.

Tilapia are tropical freshwater fish very tolerant to temperature upto 41-42 °C in which the other fish species such as the Indian Major Carps (IMC) exhibits decreased growth. The consequence of this decreased growth is that it would take a longer time to reach a harvestable size and require more food. Tilapia due to its adaptability to high temperature reach its harvestable size within 4 months. Moreover,  Tilapia culture is also bringing a social and economic standing of women thus enhancing the gender inclusiveness in accessing to the incremental benefits.