Impact of Integrated Farming of Water Chestnut and Cat Fish on Livelihood of Farmers in Seasonal Waterlogged Areas of Odisha

The paper has assessed the impact of integration of water chestnut cultivation with cat fish culture on livelihood of farmers in the seasonal waterlogged areas of Balasore district in Odisha. It has revealed an increase in production of water chestnut by 1.99 t/ha with an additional harvest of catfish to the extent of 0.78 tonnes, resulting in more than 50 per cent increase in the income of farmers. The study has observed that before adoption of technology, four out of five types of assets measuring the changes in livelihood of farm families were below the average level (barring social assets), which increased considerably after adoption of technology with highest gain in financial assets (41%), followed by physical assets (35%), social assets (31%) and human assets (29%). About 86 per cent farmers could be brought to above average level of living with the change in farming situation on adoption of water chestnut cultivation integrated with cat fish farming in Odisha. The developed package of practices for integrated farming of water chestnut and catfish has been adopted by the “CARE India” under their dissemination programme in tribal districts of Odisha.