Young fish farmer of Jajpur writes success story

Jajpur: Meet  young fish farmer from Jajpur Ashok Kumar Das who has harvested his first batch of fish a couple of months ago and earned a huge profit. At a time when fish farming is fast gaining momentum among other rural livelihoods such as agriculture, because of its untapped potential to generate employment and improve food security, the Reliance Foundation Information Service (RFIS) comes handy for the farmers of many rural pockets of Odisha.

“I am so happy, the profit I got is sufficient to meet all the needs of my family for the whole year,” said an elated Das, a small farmer belonging to Kuanra Sahi of Dasharathpur block in Jajpur district.

Ashok suffered heavy loss twice during his previous attempts and was hopeless. “In February last year, I came to know about RFIS from an Odia daily and immediately dropped a few lines of the query in the address and within a day, I got a call from Debabrata Samal, the Senior Technical Consultant for Farmers of RFIS. He asked me about my experience in the field and advised me to resume freshwater fish-farming. I had a pond of 9,000 sqft and without a second thought I jumped into the business again.”

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The Consultant guided me to success. “At present, besides earning my livelihood from pisciculture, I am planning to employ more people in the business,” Das added.

Following the advisory, the young farmer bought one quintal of fish seedling of different varieties like Rohu, carp, and mackerel and released them in his pond. They were provided with appropriate fish feed which is crucial for their growth and survival.

“Earlier, I was unaware of the quantity and variety of fish feed to be given. I came to know from the experts that each fish requires to feed up to five percent of their body weight. I used only organic feed like rice and peanut powder to meet the elements crucial for the fishes – protein, carbohydrate, fat, and vitamins.”

He continued, “The growth of fishes due to use of organic feed is not as fast as that due to the use of other varieties of feed available cheap in the market, but I ensure that the fishes I sell contribute to the good health of the consumers.”

“While I am sure that I can strengthen my economic background by devoting to pisciculture, I am dreaming of creating job opportunities for my co-villagers. I am now sure that I can do it. In the initial stage, the reason behind my choosing pisciculture was to create job opportunities for others, because I know that it not only engages the farmers, but also many others connected to it.

Many youth of his village take Das as an inspiration.