Gujarat fishermen can earn 8-fold through 'cage culture'

A new fishing technique that was developed by scientists from the Gujarat Institute of Desert Ecology (GUIDE) has yielded eight-fold returns in fishing under a trial conducted in the past 8 months.

Come monsoon, the fish cage culture will now be actively adopted by over 500 fishermen across the state.

The cage, built with bamboo, drum and barrel, costs between Rs 15,000 to Rs 25,000 with a life of four to five years inwater.

What is the cage culture? Fishes are raised commercially in one of four culture settings — open ponds, raceways, tanks, or cages. The cage culture utilizes existing water resources but encloses the fishes in a cage or basket, which allows water to pass freely between the fish and the pond.

"In this technique, a floating structure with enclosed fishnets, synthetic ropes, buoys, and anchors is installed in open sea or estuary, which is used for culturing fishes, shrimps and crabs. We have experimented for milkfish," said Vijay Kumar, Director, GUIDE.

"The cage culture provides high economic returns than other aquaculture activities. It has a simple technology, which can be made a locally available resource used for cage construction and operation, making it economically, socially and environmentally sound. If cage culture is practiced intensively it would give high yields in minimum capital investment."

The experiment was conducted on a pilot basis at various locations, including Junabandar and Arambhada.

"The survival rate of 80 per cent was accomplished. Based on the positive outcomes achieved in the previous experiments, GUIDE is in the process of establishing this activity in other locations of Gulf of Kachchh with Gujarat Ecological Education and Research Foundation (GEER) as a part of National Adaptation Fund on Climate Change (NAFCC) in a major scale for livelihood upliftment of marginal fishers and 'pagadias' (fishing in the shore areas) in coastal villages," said Dr G Thirumaran, a scientist at GUIDE.