Aquaculture Development in Chhattisgarh, India: What, why and how?

Abstract

Aquaculture development has been in a rapid phase and many of the states in India have progressed showing way for sustainable livelihoods for rural and urban communities. In the recent years the state Chhattisgarh has shown an unprecedented growth in terms of production and productivity in aquaculture. There has been several studies on the growth of Indian fisheries and its contribution to GDP and as a livelihood option for millions of Indians. Very few studies has been attempted to analyze what, why and how of aquaculture development in a prominent state like Chhattisgarh. This paper is an attempt taken by ICAR-Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture, Bhubaneswar, Odisha to study the prominence of aquaculture in the state of Chhattisgarh. The study concludes that use of viable technologies coupled with robust fisheries policies have been the key for success of the state fisheries. The productivity in community ponds is 3055 kg/ha/year against the national average of 2200kg/ha/year and the average production of reservoir is 202 kg/ha/year against the national average of 48 kg/ha/year. The state has brought fish culture to about 90% of the total area suitable for aquaculture. Centrally sponsored scheme Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) had a clear impact which was implemented in 2007 and during that period the growth in Chhattisgarh fisheries was 13.8% in 2008-09 which was only 1.2% in 2007-08 and then all time growth rate of 30.97% was observed during 2010-11. The paper also lists out several such reasons that have been a prime mover for flourishing aquaculture in the state.