The Edakuppam hamlet in Wallajah taluk houses the first of its kind fish-seed rearing farm in the district, thanks to efforts made by Sekar, a 53-year-old farmer who refuses to take the beaten path and has been advocating fish farming for the past 35 years. In the last five years he has set up fish seed rearing farm in 3.5 acres with the help of the Department of Fisheries.
“Beginning with my grandfather’s era, our family has been into this business,’ he said adding that his father and grandfather were rearing fish of edible variety in government tanks and ponds while he has deviated from this line and opted to rear fishling.
As a school dropout, he rears various varieties of seedlings such as Catla Catla, Rohu, Mrigala, Silver Carp, Common Carp, Koi Carp and ornamental fish in his farm. He gets the Koi Carp fishling of about 1 cm size for 40 paise each from Kolkata and rears them for one month to 70 days. As soon as the size of the fishlings doubles he sells them off for one rupee each. “I make a profit of 40 paise from each fishling. If properly maintained, one could rear up to 10 lakh fishlings in one acre fish pond and profit could range up to Rs 2 lakh,’ he said.