All about Fish Farming in India

Indian fisheries and aquaculture are key food-producing sectors that provide nutritional security to the food basket, contribute to agricultural exports, and employ approximately 14 million people in various activities.

Since independence, the country has exhibited consistent and sustained increases in fish output, with various resources ranging from deep seas to highland lakes and more than 10% of global biodiversity in terms of fish and shellfish species. The sector contributes 1.1 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 5.15 percent of the agricultural GDP, accounting for around 6.3 percent of global fish production.

Inland fisheries contribute almost 65 percent of overall fish production of 10.1 million metric tonnes, and cultural fisheries contribute roughly the same.

Export potential

With 10.5 lakh tonnes in volume and 33,442 crores in value, fish and fish products have risen to become India's largest group of agricultural exports. This accounts for approximately 10% of the country's total exports and roughly 20% of agricultural exports. Fish and shellfish items from more than 50 different species are shipped to 75 countries across the world.

Farming systems based on aquaculture 

In India, there are 2.36 million hectares of ponds and tanks, 0.798 million hectares of flood plain lakes, 195 210 kilometers of rivers and canals, and 2.907 million hectares of reservoirs that might be used for aquaculture.

Freshwater aquaculture relies heavily on ponds and tanks; yet, only around 40% of the available space is now exploited for aquaculture. Eastern India's ponds are mainly small farmhouse ponds of less than 1 hectare, but western India's watersheds are larger, covering areas of 15–25 hectares each.

Open rivers with in-flows are frequent in northern India, while watersheds, sometimes known as tanks, are commonly used for agriculture irrigation in southern India. Ponds and tanks are state-owned or communal in numerous sections of the country, and they are leased out for 3–5 years.

Integrated farming system for one ha 

• Cropping (0.90 ha) + fishery (0.10 ha) + poultry (50 layers) + 5 kg oyster mushroom production/day. 

• Rice-Gingelly-Maize and Rice-Soybean-Sunflower in 0.90 ha + polyculture fish rearing (0.10 ha), Pigeon (100 pairs), and 5kg mushroom production per day 

• Goat (20 female + one male) + fish (400 numbers of polyculture) + improved cropping system for wetlands 

Integration of cropping in 0.90 ha with the fishery in 0.10 ha, 50 layers of poultry, and 5 kg oyster mushroom production per day will result in a higher net return of Rs.35,000/ha/year (or) Integration of Rice-Gingelly-Maize and Rice-Soybean-Sunflower in 0.90 ha with 0.10 ha polyculture fish rearing, 100 pairs of pigeon and 5 kg mushroom production per day could result in a higher return of Rs. 88, 700 in one ha farming with additional employment of 300 man-days/year. 

The highest net return of Rs. 1,31,118 could be possible by the integration of goat (20 female + one male), fish (400 numbers of polyculture), along with improved cropping system for wetlands.

It has been estimated that about 1.2 million ha of potential brackish water area available in India is suitable for farming. In addition to this, about 9.0 million ha of salt-affected areas are also available. However, in shrimp culture, only 15% of the potential area has been put into cultural purposes.

The farming of shrimp is largely dependent on smallholdings of less than 2 ha, these farms account for over 90% of the total area utilized for shrimp culture. Many of the farm holdings located in Kerala and West Bengal belong to the traditional systems of shrimp farming.  

Freshwater aquaculture activity being an important activity expanded its dimension in terms of area coverage and intensity of operation, with Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra, etc, taking up fish culture as a commercial farming enterprise.

Of late, scientific carp farming is picking up in the northeastern states of India. Brackish water aquaculture is mainly concentrated on the coasts of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Orissa, and West Bengal. With regards to the market, while the main areas of consumption for freshwater fish are in West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, and northeastern India. Cultured brackish water shrimps are destined mainly for export. 

Non-conventional culture systems 

Sewage-fed fish culture and rice paddy-cum-fish culture are two important culture systems practiced in certain areas of the country; sewage-fed fish culture in bheries in West Bengal is an age-old practice.

About 5,700 ha are currently being utilized for fish culture using the input of primary-treated sewage and produce over 7,000 tonnes of fish per annum, mainly consisting of the major and minor carps. The culture system usually involves multiple stocking and multiple harvesting approaches, with harvest sizes usually in the range of 300–500 g.

Though stocking densities of 7,000–10,000 of advanced fingerlings per ha is prescribed. Normally, multiple stockings and multiple harvesting are adopted and fishes are reared for 3-5 months, depending on the growth of the fishes to reach the marketable size of 250-400 g.  

Paddy-cum-fish culture is undertaken in medium to semi-deep water rice paddy fields in lowland areas with fairly strong dykes to prevent the escape of cultivated fish during floods, trenches and pond refuges in the paddy fields provide shelter for the fish.

The modern concept of paddy-fish integration with the rice-fish plot, digging of peripheral trenches, construction of dykes, nutrient utilization of pond refuge and sowing of improved varieties of rice and release of fish in trenches, resulted in improved the yield of rice and fish. Fish ponds receive the crop residues as pond input.

Cultured fish species 

While carp form the most important species farmed in freshwater in India, it is the shrimp from the brackish water sector which contributes the bulk of the production. The three Indian major carps, namely, Catla (Catla catla), rohu labeo (Labeo rohita) and mrigal carp (Cirrhinus mrigala) contribute over 90% of the total Indian aquaculture production. Introduced during the 1970s into the carp polyculture system in the country, three exotic carps, namely, silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix), grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idellus), and common carp (Cyprinus carpio) now form a second important group.

Among the catfishes, Philippine catfish, 'magur' (Clarias batrachus) is the only species that has received a lot of attention. Stinging catfish, 'Singhi' (Heteropneustes fossilis) is another air-breathing catfish species being cultured to a certain extent in swamps and derelict water bodies, especially in the eastern states. In recent years, attempts have been made to develop the culture of fishes like Pangasius pangasius, Pangasius sutchi, Oreochromis niloticus, Ompok pabda, etc.

The other finfish species of importance include climbing perch (Anabas testudineus), mussels (Channa striata and C. marulius), etc. Among the freshwater prawns, the giant river prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii), is the most important species followed by the monsoon river prawn, M.malcolmsonii.

The brackish water aquaculture sector is mainly supported by shrimp production, as well as, the giant tiger prawn (Penaeus monodon), which is responsible for the bulk of production followed by the recently introduced white leg shrimp, Penaeus vannamei. In fact, the culture of this shrimp picked up on par with tiger shrimp in a very short span of time. Although India possesses several other potential species of finfish and shellfish, the production of these is still very low-key. In seawater, the major farmed species are the green mussel (Perna viridis), Indian brown mussel (Perna indica), Indian backwater oyster (Crassostrea madrasensis), Japanese pearl oyster (Pinctada fucata), and seaweed species like Gracilaria edulis. 

Future prospects 

The Indian government's Ministry of Agriculture has a Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairy, and Fisheries, with a Division of Fisheries serving as the nodal agency. This institution is in charge of designing, supervising, and funding many centrally funded fisheries and aquaculture development projects in all Indian states.

Most states have a separate Ministry of Fisheries, or it falls under the Ministry of Animal Husbandry in others. All states have well-organized fisheries departments, with district fisheries executive officers and block fisheries extension officers who are active in the sector's overall growth.

However, the administrative structure at state levels varies from state to state. Centrally sponsored schemes like the 422 FFDAs cover almost all districts in the Country and the 39 BFDAs in the maritime districts have also contributed to aquaculture development. 

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research located within the Department of Agricultural Research and Education, which in turn is within the Indian Ministry of Agriculture, has a Division of Fisheries, which undertakes the R&D on aquaculture and fisheries through a number of research institutes. There are about 695 Krishi Vigyan Kendras (Farm Science Centres) in the Country, operated through State Agricultural Universities, ICAR Research Institutes, and NGOs, most of which also undertake aquaculture development within their scope of activities.

Aquaculture over recent years has not only led to substantial socio-economic benefits such as increased nutritional levels, income, employment, and foreign exchange but has also brought vast unutilized and under-utilized land and water resources under culture. With freshwater aquaculture being compatible with other farming systems, it is largely environmentally friendly and provides for recycling and utilization of several types of organic wastes.

Over the years, however, cultural practices have undergone considerable intensification and with the possibility of obtaining high productivity levels, there has been a state of flux between the different farming practices.

In the brackish water sector, there were issues of waste generation, conversion of agricultural land, salinization, degradation of soil and the environment due to the extensive use of drugs and chemicals, destruction of mangroves, and so on. Though some of these issues posed concerns, most however, were isolated instances with the bulk of farming conforming to eco-requirements.