Realizing the potential of small pond fisheries in rainfed areas

Promoting small scale fish production by building capacities and establishing  support systems will go a long way in enhancing livelihoods, family nutrition, strengthening circular economies and contributing to a more sustainable and equitable food system. WASSAN has demonstrated this possibility by implementing its initiative with tribal communities across 500 water bodies in Andhra Pradesh.

Small scale fisheries hold vast potential for sustainable development, particularly in rainfed and tribal regions. The potential of numerous small water bodies that dot the high rainfall tribal areas, in terms of supporting small scale fisheries for nutritional and livelihood improvements, remains untapped. The current Government programs and existing fish culture support systems cater mostly to larger water bodies, promoting intensive fish farming cultures, often excluding small and marginal farmers who own smaller ponds in the range of 0.10-2.00 acres. Reviving small scale fishery systems and establishing suitable support systems (access to fish seed, fish gear, fish feed and knowledge), though challenging is the need of the hour.

WASSAN, an NGO, has been implementing a community centric, ‘Agroecological Intensification of landscapes’- an initiative focussing on improving fish production using all the water bodies available in a landscape. By promoting local fish production, this initiative aims at enhancing nutrition density, strengthening circular economies and contributing to a more sustainable and equitable food system. This approach, implemented with the tribal farmers in ASR and Manyam districts of Andhra Pradesh, has encouraged tribal farmers to adopt fish farming, increase their incomes and gain access to nutritious foods. The initiative was implemented in 500 water bodies across 224 villages in ASR and Manyam districts of Andhra Pradesh.

Approach to Eco-Intensification of water bodies

Traditionally, small water bodies were being used by tribal farmers with limited support  from the Fisheries Department. Those engaged in fish production faced numerous challenges, such as, non-availability of quality fingerlings in time, inadequate technical guidance and lack of organized support, hindering their ability to optimize productivity. Dependence of farmers on subsidised fingerlings distributed by the Government, is another challenge.

The initiative was launched initially in 2017, covering 46 ponds in Araku and Seethampeta mandals. Building on its success, the Department of Fisheries extended support for fingerlings to 199 ponds in 2018. To ensure long-term sustainability, WASSAN provided handholding support to 434 farm ponds in Andhra Pradesh, both directly and through collaborative efforts with NABARD and state departments as a technical agency.

The Initiative focussed on the following key elements:

1. Mapping, Characterising and Planning Processes: The first step was preparing an inventory of the water bodies in the landscape and their characteristics. WASSAN developed a ePRA tool for doing this. Resource mapping of the landcape is done digitally and a large print out of a Google Earth map is prepared and made available to the communities. The information includes existing water bodies and their characteristics and potential sites for pond excavation on both private and community lands.
2. Developing Package of Practices: The water bodies are small and most often seasonal with varying water retention periods of 6 months to 8 months. Suitable package of practices were developed for fish rearing (rearing fry to fingerlings/ advanced fingerlings) and fish culture, using non-chemical / natural farming methods with local inputs.

Very less disease outbreak is observed in tribal rainfed fisheries. Rice bran, cattle and poultry manure, Jeevamrutham were used as inputs to increase plankton production and enhance natural productivity in the pond. These not only protected soil health and water quality, but helped in keeping the natural resources unharmed, while reducing the production costs. As the landscape is free from use of pesticides and chemicals, the surrounding water bodies enable harvesting of disease free fish stock. This also helps the rural population to access healthy food while protecting the eco systems.

3. Developing Fisheries Resource Persons (FRPs) for intensive Capacity Building Support:

The landscape is divided into clusters each consisting of 30 to 50 water bodies. This forms a service area of the Fisheries Resource Persons (FRPs). Potential FRPs are identified from the participants to extend season long support to the fish farmers in their cluster. Communication material in the form of charts and technical manuals explaining the practices are developed and given to the FRPs to aid in their communication. MoUs with the FRPs are prepared detailing their roles and responsibilities with task-based payment.

In 2022, WASSAN trained 30 resource persons on advanced fish farming practices, with a focus on fingerlings supply and harvesting processes. A two-module Training of Trainers (TOT) program, with each module spanning three days, was organised. Module 1 included topics like Pre-stocking, fingerling stocking and pond management. Module 2 included topics on feeding mechanisms, trial netting, fish production, bund intensification and other critical aspects of fisheries management. Fisheries Resource Persons (FRPs) were equipped in 2024 with the skills to provide technical guidance and effective support to fish farmers, leveraging their existing connections with fishing communities.

FRPs conducted cluster-level training programs for fish farmers, providing each farmer with a comprehensive training of six hours. The training covered a range of topics, including: best practices in fish farming, fish feed preparation and feed mill operations, sampling and harvesting methods etc. These training programs aimed to enhance the knowledge and skills of fish farmers, promoting sustainable and productive fishing practices.

Beyond building capacities of fish farmers, the FRPs were also responsible for the following activities.

1. Identifying ponds and mapping (geo-tagging of potential water bodies)
2. Identifying the fish farmers,  their water bodies and take the demand for fish seed.
3. Provide logistical support for supply, maintenance and stocking of quality fish seed (fry/fingerlings/yearlings).
4. Trail netting periodically and guide maintenance of fish card given to each fish farmer.
5. Organise field days to demonstrate the fish production using Natural farming practices in rainfed ponds

4. Databases, Digital Tool Kits and fish-seed demand estimation:

A mobile application was developed using ODK, for recording and monitoring.  In each cluster, about 30-50 water bodies are covered with the area of water spread, ranging from 5-6 acres. Water bodies are divided into two broad categories i.e. Seasonal and Perennial and the demand for fish seed estimated. This data is entered into the mobile ODK app.  Geo-tagged data is aggregated simultaneously in the webserver. The central team based on the compiled data arrives at the total estimates of fish-seed (species wise) and as per the stage of growth. QGIS is used for mapping, geo-tagging and visualization of waterbodies during the baseline survey. Monthly MIS data is collected in 3 phases i.e. Feeding & manuring data, growth monitoring & harvesting data. Till February 2025, 2051 records of data is made available in the web server/portal.

5. Fish Seed production / Distribution

Farmers were encouraged to buy quality seeds in time instead of waiting for subsidised seeds. Initially the program was initiated with individual fish farmers. Gradually there was a need of support services to make the activities sustainable and scaling up. To institutionalize the services through a collective approach, two Fisheries FPOs were formed. Around 300-400 shareholders registered for FFPO with around 5 lakhs turnover. Fish farmers buy the fish seeds through the FFPOs (Fish Farmer Producer Organizations) with the help of FRPs. The indent is prepared centrally from the database as per the suitability and location specific species culture. Local vendors are identified and price negotiated as per the demand. The vendor has to provide the fish-seed in identified locations and drop points based on the clusters-routes. Farmers pick up the seed from these drop points. FRPs help with seed distribution with linkage with vendors while ensuring supply of quality seeds and in their acclimatization process. The FRPs collect the cost of the fish-seed from the farmers and deposit the money in the FFPOs bank account.

6. Regular monitoring and easy access to the fish gear/ equipment

6 Custom Hiring Centres (CHCs) have been established. The CHCs are managed by a service provider and owned by the community institution, ensuring community-led management and decision-making. The fisheries equipment like Fish Nets (Cast nets, drag nets, hapa nets) with different mesh sizes, weighing machine (for small indigenous fish and carps), plankton nets, pH meters are placed in the Custom Hiring Centres. FRPs and fish farmers can access this equipment at a nominal rental fee fixed by the community, promoting affordable access to equipments. Annual transactions of CHCs are in the range of Rs 60,000-80,000.

The FRPs conduct the trail-netting at regular intervals in the clusters and the growth details, feeding and manure data, mortality status etc.  Pond water quality is recorded in the mobile ODK app. Fish farmers monitor and record the data using data cards regularly. These cards are useful in growth monitoring and for summarising the overall observations during field days.

7. Creating circular economies through Fish Feed Enterprises

In aquaculture, feed cost consists of 60-70% of the total expenses of the culture. The fish farmers in these interior areas face difficulties in fetching fish feed from outside market, which are expensive too.  Conventional feed which is high in protein, is derived from plant and animal sources, which costs Rs 60-80. Besides high costs, fish waste from conventionally formulated feeds is difficult to degrade because it is low in carbon and energy, and that leads to poor water quality and unhealthy fish.

Realising the issues of availing the fish feed, fish feed formulations are developed using locally sourced, inexpensive ingredients, ensuring a nutritionally balanced feed at a lower production cost. The local feed is prepared from vegetables, millet and rice bran, chopped drumstick/banana leaves, available oil cake which costs around Rs 35-45. The fish farmers are trained on nutritional requirements of fish, feeding and storage methods by the experts.

Around 7 small-scale fish feed mills are established. The fish feed mill is run either by individuals or by SHG groups in some clusters.  The small-scale feed mill, comprising a pulveriser and pelletizer, is designed to be women-friendly, empowering women’s groups to collect ingredients, produce, and sell fish feed, transforming them from homemakers to entrepreneurs. Few of the FRPs are trained as Fish feed mill entrepreneurs. The fish farmers are linked to these entrepreneurs. The entrepreneur processes the fish feed as pellets using the ingredients provided by fish farmers.  These shrinking pellet feeds are sun dried and kept in a dry place followed by a proper storage facility. 

The number of water bodies create demand locally for fish feed. The enterprises meet the demand from procuring the ingredients locally; thus, creating a circularity of nutrition and income flows.

8. Fish Harvesting Field days

‘Fish Harvesting Festivals’ are organised for showcasing results and to encourage others to pursue fish farming. To these events, district administrations and line department officials are invited, where harvest is shown as well as farmers share their own experiences. Hopefully, this can trigger and support higher public investments on small-pond fisheries.

The Fish Harvesting Day is organized once in a year for a single farm pond during the harvesting time (usually in March/ April month). Three to Four such events are organized every year during the harvesting season where 50-100 farmers and different stakeholder attend each event.  

Conclusion

In the entire initiative, the investments are made only to support FRPs, the training events and organising fish gear as a common resource. With its success, the approach has spread to 4 states – Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand and Telangana covering about 7017 tribal farmers with 3367 Acres of water spread area.

Subsequently, the efforts would be to motivate and convince farmers to pay for the FRP services in cash or kind at the time of fish harvest and pay a subscription fee to make the system entirely self-driven. However, facilitation of the processes and technical backstopping, do require support for few more years.

 Reference:

FAO, The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2024- Blue Transformation in action, FAO Rome,2024.

Priyanka Patra 
Programme Officer (Fisheries),
WASSAN (Watershed Support Services and Activities Network), 
Hyderabad
E-mail: priyanka@wassan.org

Dr M.L Sanyasi Rao 
Associate Director
WASSAN (Watershed Support Services and Activities Network), 
Hyderabad