SC group earns profit from cage fish farming

In a main relief from a harrowing struggle to satisfy their livelihood due to the pandemic, a group of fish farmers from the scheduled caste group in Ernakulam has earned fantastic gain by a bumper harvest of pearl location (Karimeen) from their cage fish farming enterprise.

A self-assistance group named ‘Puzhayoram’ in Maradu recorded a generate of 600 kg of pearl location from a 4x4m square-sized cage fish put in in Maradu-Nettoor backwaters.

The cage farming was portion of a particular programme of the Scheduled Caste Sub Prepare (SCSP) of the Central Maritime Fisheries Investigate Institute (CMFRI) for the SC group.

The harvested fish was wholly bought out on the location itself and the SC family members in the location reaped a gain of ₹2,seventy three,000 from a 10-month extensive farming that started out in October past calendar year by stocking 2,000 seeds of pearl location, said K Madhu, Principal Scientist of the CMFRI and the Principal Investigator of the undertaking. The fish attained a development charge of ordinary 380g with ninety five for every cent of survival charge and the fish bought out for ₹450 for every kg.

Cage farming

As portion of the programme, the CMFRI experienced delivered the group with cage, seeds, feed for the complete farming period of time and other ancillary amenities absolutely free of price tag and the researchers from the institute guided the farmers during all the phases of the farming.

“With no earnings and unemployment, the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown experienced a cascading influence on the lives of the SC family members in the location. However, the cage farming enterprise has assisted them sustain their livelihood to a specified extent,” Madhu said including that in addition to cage farming, pen tradition and bio-floc fish farming ended up also in progress for the group in different sections of the State.

A Gopalakrishnan, CMFRI Director said, “The cage farming engineering and other fish farming pursuits of CMFRI have proved its likely to accelerate the pace of progress of the SC and ST family members, and for their socio-financial progress. The institute is often concentrated on empowering the marginalised portion of the modern society by tiny-scale enterprises by extending its technologies to them.”

Lots of fish farmers in lousy backgrounds in the nation are drastically benefitted by CMFRI’s SCSP and Tribal Sub Prepare programmes which are aimed at mainstreaming the marginalised group. Efforts are also in progress to increase aid to the transgenders in SC and ST group in a way that helps them make a living by cage fish farming and allied pursuits, he additional.