Carpio fish seed production and nursery management practices

Biswajit Lahiri and Amitaya Ghosh
Situation/Challenges/Problem/Issues
Mr. Panna Sarkar of Dwarikapur village, under Kalyanpur block of Khowai District, started rearing Indian Major Carps (IMC) fish in a pond of 0.1-acre area in 1989. He faced several challenges after construction of his fish pond and did not get even quality fish seed due to transportation and financial problems. In 2020, he decided to start breeding of Cyprinus carpio fish in his pond. He got himself registered under the Matsya Varta project of College of Fisheries, CAU (Imphal), Lembucherra, Tripura in 2020 to avail the scientific advisories through toll free number. Mr Sarkar contacted Matsya Varta project team through toll free number and he wanted to gather information on scientific breeding technique and seed rearing management practices of carpio. Specifically, he was interested to know the proper spawning environment, breeding procedure/management, care of fertilized egg during incubation period, and feeding larvae. After successful breeding procedure, Mr Sarkar use to call regularly to Matsya Varta project team for larval care and its proper feed management practices. During larval rearing management he faced different issues related to water quality management.
Response/Initiative
After receiving guidance from Matsya Varta project team during first year, he introduced one female brooder along with 2-3 male brooders into the breeding hapa. During evening hour, water hyacinth was released into the breeding hapa for inducing breeding environment. Mr. Sarkar was regularly contacted by Matsya Varta project team through follow-up calls for advising immediate and necessary management practices, which he actively followed and successfully achieved the breeding management. For water quality management, less supplementary feeding and manuring were recommended by the experts during fry rearing management practices. He was encouraged to take it on enterprise mode under fish seed production and fry rearing management. His performance of fish farming is being regularly monitored through field visits and follow-up calls/WhatsApp messages by the MatsyaVarta project team of the college of fisheries, CAU (Imphal) Lembucherra, Tripura.
Results/Outcomes
Mr. Sarkar has achieved a considerable increase in his farm income after the interventions as guided by the MatsyVarta project Team. In a nutshell, his total managerial cost incurred was Rs. 10,000/- as on 31.01.2021 and he earned a net profit of Rs. 22,000/-.
Evidence/Impact
Before Mr. Panna Sarkar was earning on an average Rs. 1,00,000/- per annum. Now, his total annual income has shoot up to Rs. 1,22,000/- (approximately). His income raised considerably with an additional income of Rs. 22,000/- per annum due to the inclusion of fish seed rearing practices. He is presently continuing fish seed rearing and grow out management also in winter season for improving his livelihood status. It helped him in substantial increase in his annual family income and inclusion of seed rearing management in winter season helped him to get more livelihood generation opportunities. Moreover, the necessary preventive measures and advisories were also provided to him to minimize the losses. His story has become an inspiration to some other enthusiastic farmers in the locality and he is helping them as opinion leader.
Lessons Learned
This success story came out as an important and successful intervention for diversification of livelihood system under carpio fish breeding and seed rearing management system module in khowai district. Thus, a sincere effort and policy formulation regarding inclusion of scientific fish seed rearing/nursery management practices can change the scenario to develop a viable, profitable, and sustainable farming system in Khowai District of Tripura.
The writers are from College of Fisheries, CAU (I), Lembucherra, Tri-pura For further details contact: - PR & Media Management Cell, CAU, Imphal. Email: prmmcell@gmail.com