Ornamental Fish Farming: Employment and good income

Nowadays the craze for ornamental fish farming has increased. Many youths have chosen this as their profession. One such person is Hasan Maslai, a farmer from Gove village in Ragiyad district. He started the ornamental fish farming and fish seed production business to fulfill his passion for fish farming. Now he is earning profits of lakhs annually. Along with the country, his ornamental fishes are also going to foreign countries.

Hobby turned Profession 

Fish farmer Hasan Maslai owns 3.60 hectares of land, out of which 1.20 hectares he cultivates horticulture crops. Hasan was very fond of fishing, for which he used to go to the nearby reservoir, river, stream, and sea. He went to a nearby water body to fulfill his fishing hobby, which someone took on the lease. On going there, he faced some kind of problem. After this, he gathered information about the process of taking the reservoir on lease. Then formed a society in his village and took the reservoir on lease. Now he was looking for good quality fish seed to fill the reservoir.

Help received from Fisheries Department and Krishi Vigyan Kendra 

When he could not find good seeds, he decided to start fish seed production with the help of Fisheries Department and Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Roha. For this purpose, he took small ponds near his farm on lease. Here he stocked 6 lakh spawn of Indian Major Carp and got 1,20,000 finger sized fish from his society’s reservoir. He sold 20,000 small fish to local farmers, making a profit for both. When he started making profit from this business, he thought of using his unused land to prepare a nursery.

Rearing a variety of fish 

Hasan, a progressive farmer, has been rearing different types of fish for the past 6 years, including katla, rohu, mirgal, cypress, grasscarp, silvercarp and kalbasu. While in ornamental fishes also they breed many types of fishes. These include Oscar, Severum, Silver Dollar, Kickcarp, Tiger Shark, Tiger Barb, Aurelius Barb, Filamentous Barb, Negro Barb and Sucker Cat Fish.

Success in ornamental fish farming 

The production of Indian Major Carp is only for 4-5 months, so they started Ornamental Fish Farming, which runs throughout the year. First, he set up a small unit in the Gaushala itself. As the business grew, a separate unit was created for it and now their business is flourishing. He is also providing permanent employment to many from his fish farming business and provides seasonal employment to 7 to 8 people.

How much is earning from ornamental fish farming 

Every year he produces around 70 lakh fish seeds, earning Rs 10-12 lakh, giving him a profit of around Rs 3.5 lakh. Similarly, he earns 21 lakh from ornamental fish farming and after taking out the cost, there is a profit of about 8,13,500 rupees.

In this way, they get a total profit of about 11,63,500 annually. His ornamental fishes are being sold in many parts of the country as well as abroad. He has developed new technology for fish seed packing and transportation, for which he has also received Innovative Farmer Award from ICAR, New Delhi.

Also Read: Drumstick Cultivation: Scientific methods gives fruits twice a year

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