Success story of FFDA beneficiary farmer: A case study

Composite Fish Culture (CFC) in ponds and tanks virtually revolutionized and inspired the freshwater aquaculture sector. It is a proven technology in terms of giving higher fish output and income as well as upliftment of socio-economic conditions of the farmers. The adoption of CFC practice is considered to be relatively more skill oriented and capital intensive practices than other traditional fish farming methods. Therefore, adequate institutional support to diffuse CFC in freshwater aquaculture sector is utmost important to facilitate technology transfer, stimulate productivity, generate employment and increase income. Credit facilities to resource poor farmers and extension services would facilitate in promoting more rapid adoption of improved technologies in aquaculture. FFDA provides technical and extension support, and subsidies to the farming community besides arranging ponds on lease from local government bodies and loans from banks. To study the outcome of FFDA some case studies were conducted in North 24 Paragana district of West Bengal and documented. One of the success stories is given here. One of the beneficiary farmers under FFDA scheme namely Shri. Swapan Kumar Parui of Barrackpore-I block, North 24 Paragana district of West Bengal adopted composite fish culture practices through FFDA scheme and earned an annual profit of ₹ 5, 85,000/- from fish farming. Different types of fishery activities like hatchery management, rearing and brood stock management were practiced by him. The success of farmer and efforts of FFDAis now motivating other fish farmers of the area to opt for improving fish farming practices.