THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:The Kattakada Assembly Constituency is poised for a giant leap in inland fish farming. Joining hands with the Kerala State Land Use Board and Fisheries Department, the constituency will carry out fish farming in 50 public ponds.
The initiative that spreads across six grama panchayats -Kattakada, Malayinkeezhu, Maranalloor, Pallichal, Vilappil and Vilavoorkal - is aimed at making the constituency self-reliant in fish production.
“The very initiative is part of IB Satheesh MLA’s ‘Jalasamrudhi’ programme. It was following the overwhelming success of the pilot project carried out at five public ponds that it was decided to spread the initiative to more places,” said Land Use Commissioner A Nizamudeen.
Through the said initiative, the authorities are eyeing the twin objectives of fish production and conservation of ponds.“As part of the ‘Jalasamrudhi’ programme, the public ponds in the constituency were restored. If their conservation and monitoring are not carried out on a timely basis, these water bodies could again become dump yards. Following this, fish farming was mooted at ponds,” adds Nizamudeen.
According to the Fisheries Department, fish varieties like Catla (Catla catla) Rohu (Labeo rohita), Mrigal (Cirrhinus mrigala) were released to the ponds and based on its area, 200 to 500 juvenile fishes were released to each pond.
The fish seedlings were expected to be maintained by self-help groups, comprising of five to 10 members. The catch could be harvested within six months.“The pilot project had brought the self-help groups a bounty. It is in this backdrop that the grama panchayats came forward to implement the project in more areas,” said an officer with the Fisheries Department.
The official added that with inland fish farming is being spread to more areas and the constituency pushing for self-sufficiency in fish farming, the department is weighing the plan of opening a fish seed farm at the constituency.
“The state government had sanctioned an amount of Rs 48 crore for the development of inland fish farming. From the said amount, a sum of Rs 1.34 crore has been set aside for promoting fish farming in Thiruvananthapuram. The inland fish farming and fish seed farm programmes will be carried out by using a portion of that amount,” adds the officer.
The programme for self-sufficiency in fish production at the constituency comes close on the heels of various programmes for water-conservation, rainwater harvesting and groundwater recharging and projects that intend to attain self-sufficiencies in agricultural and food-grain production.