6212 Available Infrastructure for marine fishing The development and progress of marine

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6.2.1.2 Available Infrastructure for marine fishing: The development and progress of marine fishing depend on the available infrastructural facility. Large scale marine fishing requires jetties, trawlers, motorised crafts, preservation utensils, cold storages, ice plants, etc. to provide quality products. According to the information provided by the Office of District Fishery Officer-cum-CEO FFDA & BFDA, in 2010, Balasore district had 12 fish landing centers and jetties present for marine fishing operation. Now there are only five jetties and seven FLC or fish landing centers in the district. Chandipur and Bahabalpur are two significant places with infrastructuralfacility. On the survey date 14th April 2012, almost 251 trawlers were available in the Balramgadi or Budhabalanga confluence within which 77 were operating. The uses of motorised and country craft are highest in all the coastal blocks (Table 6.42, Fig 6.19).Among the fish landing centers Bahabalpur and Chandipur has maximum number of total boats in operation whereas Khandia and Masaahisali have minimum number of boats operating. In the Balasore district gazetteer it is informed that 360 mechanized boats and 2500 traditional boats (1992) were operating and the major landing bases were Dharma, Chandamani, Kasafal, and Talasari. During that time an ice plant with cold storage facilities was constructed at Chandipur and also a concrete ‘T’ jetty with approach road, diesel outlet and drinking water facility was constructed. This was also facilitated with landing base for mechanized and traditional vessels. Constructed road and its linkage with Orissa trunk road provide the facility to export the fishes in different parts of India especially in the East and North-East. Three main fisherman co-operative societies were established at three main fishing points. Except this 27 other co-operative societies were also operating.Numbers of cold storages are operating in these places to provide preservation. In Balasore almost 2920 fisherman cooperatives were existing in 2010 to provide economic stability to the fishermen. Different road making projects up to the fish landing centers are being taken up. FY department has taken a significant role in developing the infrastructure of the places related with fishing. The fishery related infrastructure of the villages provided by the Marine Fisheries Census 2010, shows that there were 4 boat yards, 08 cold storages,1 freezing plant, and 1 processing plant. Marketing and relation with economy: Marine fishing and the related income are dependent upon the marketing strategies. Large numbers of intermediates are involved in marketing. Like the other coastal districts of Orissa, Balasore also experiences the same marketing problems. According to the fishermen and dry fish makers sometimes there are three to five intermediaries so they get a minimum rate for their hard work. Actually Balasore district holds a quite impressive status in fishing. As maximum of the fishes are exported outside so the demand exceeds supply, resulting in increase of price. During 1996 to 1999 the monthly price of Balasore district was almost 1.30 indices per month and higher than the other coastal districts engaged in marine fishing. The annual price indices for big sea fish was also 15.48%, higher than state average. The scenario has changed a lot as the production has reduced but different mechanized methods have been. During 1980-81 to 1994-95 the district contributed 34.01 percent of the total marine fish production. The rise of annual price indices for big sea fish was almost 15.48 % within 1980-81 to 1994-95 that was more than the average of the state. (Naik, 2001).6.2.2 Inland fishing: Inland fishing is the most common form of activity followed by the villagers. The low lying depressions are suitable for the development of inland or fresh water fishing. Except Nilagiri and Oupada C.D Blocks, the entire district of Baleswar is plain and low-lying,so almost every house-hold has a small pond(Behuria,1992). Without any scientific culture, at least 260 kg per acre per annum production can be expected and it ranges up to 600 kg per acre per annum if it is done flowing scientific methods . The total area excluding the rivers / canals is almost 6258.29 ha. Three basic types of tanks are used for fishing purpose – Gram Panchayat (GP) tank, Revenue tank and private tank (Fig.6.20). Balasore block had maximum area used for fishing under GP tanks while Baliapal had lowest. The use of revenue tank was lowest in Bhograi block and highest in Nilagiri block. The private tank area was highest in Balasore block and lowest in Nilagiri block. CV has been calculated to find out the variability of each inland water resource potential. This reveals that maximum variability is found for private tank i.e. 81.61% and GP tank has minimum variability i.e. 49.68%. Other two potentials i.e. Revenue tank has 76.81% of variability and river canals have 77.32 % variability representing significant inconsistency. The production pattern also shows modified variability. On an average, 1706.99 quintal production potential has been recorded in the district and the CV shows 45.60%. Among the blocks Balasore block shows maximum potential from GP tank and Baliapal block produces lowest. With regard to estimated potential from revenue tanks, Nilagiri block shows maximum value and Bhograi block has lowest potential. Production available from private tank is significantly high as each block gets almost 75.32% share of their fresh water fishon an average. Balasore holds first position in private tank fish production potential among all blocks and Nilagiri block holds last position in 2009-10 (Fig.6.21 A). The fish production from various fresh water sources was maximum in Balasore i.e. 18.9%, but all other block has share less than 10% of the districts total production and among them Nilagiri holds least percentage i.e. 4.8%. So from a normal view the coastal blocks show maximum potential for fresh water pisiculture because of its extensive flat topography, number of surface water bodies and mild drought effect, required suitability.The blocks having coastal attachment like Bahanaga, Balasore, Baliapal, Bhograi, and Remuna share 54.27 % of total resource potential available in the district for fresh water pisciculture whereas the hilly blocks like Nilagiri. Oupada, Khaira share is only 19.98%. The rugged topographical condition, physiograpgical drought condition in these blocks play vital roles in reducing the potential.To develop inland fishing the most significant step of the Government was the establishment of the FFDA or Fish Farmers Development Agency in 1997-98. There were some main objectives of the agency as mentioned in the district gazetteer- i) to cover available water area under modern pisciculture practice ii) to make available institutional finance to the fish farmers with necessary subsidy from the agency. iii) to prepare plan and estimate for renovation and excavation of tanks and to supervise the work through the technical staff. iv) to impart technical know-how to the fish farmers through the extension agency set up in each blocks. v) To train the fish farmers for scientific management of the culturable water area and also to train interested entrepreneurson induced breeding of the Indian Major carps (Catla, Rohi and Mrigal) and Exotic carps (Silver carps, Grass carp and Cy. Carpio). (Behuria. 1992) ‘Digha Fish farm’ in Balasore town was established in 1991-92 to supply good quality seeds to the farmers. The fish seed was supplied to the farmer at Rs 50/- for 1000 fries excluding the packaging and transport costs. During field survey it was noticed that the GP ponds are given in lease to the villager who wants to go for business for 1 year or in few cases for three years. In Jaleswar, Bahanaga, Soro, Simulia, Basta and Balasore blocks those villagers who are engaged in inland fishing and have taken lease from the Government can make profit up to Rs/-40000 or more per season. In general the GP ponds are given lease against Rs 2000/- per year. In Nilagiri Oupada and Bhograi blocks very limited numbers of ponds are leased out. This business is quite profitable and can be a better survival strategy. But it suffers for number of short comings. The most important of them is the political cause. The villagers don’t get the opportunity to have the lease as political preference exists. For taking lease of a pond the payment has to be given in advance to the Gram Panchayat. The GP pond suffers from lack of maintenance. From twenty seven surveyed villages 22 nos. or 81.48 % of the villages have only one Government pond for fishing purpose and rest 18.52% of the villages have two Government ponds given in yearly lease for fishing purpose. The average production varies from 1.5 quintal to 5.5 quintal per average size pond. 25.93% villages have average estimated production of 2 to 4 quintal fish (Primary survey 2011-15). 18.52% villages have more than 4 quintal production and 7.41% villages have only less than 2 quintal of production. In general major carps are cultivated. Except these, walking catfish, Indian torrent fish, Orange-fin labeo, Banded gourami, Corsula mrigal, yellow tail catfish, barred spiny eel, puntius sp., tilapia, are some of the common inland fresh water fish. For maximum cases the business is done after taking lease of the Gram panchayat ponds. If the pond is one’s own then the production is mainly consumed and a selected percentage of the product is marketed. Actually pisiculture is not well developed in the district. The interested persons are engaged in this business but the infrastructure or fish nurseries are really very nominal respective to the requirement. There are no government nurseries except for Balasore block. But private nurseries are available in Balasore, Basta, Remuna, Simulia and Soro. In total, nineteen private nurseries are present in the district covering an area of 16.98 hectare. If proper infrastructure and subsidy are given to the farmers then they can switch to profitable option like fishing. Production pattern: Fresh water fishing is quite significant from the aspect of resource utilization. Though it is true that fresh water fish is only for consumption as maximum percentage of the marine and brackish water fish are exported. According to WHO per capita requirement of fish is almost 11kg/year. Though from 1996-97 to 2010-11 almost 5043.74 MT fish production has been raised. On an average 8750.665 MT fish production took place from 1996-97 to 2010-11 and the variability was only 28.31% (District Administration, 2011-12). This means that slowly the sector is emerging and almost uniform production is occurring in different blocks. In the district the total produced fresh water inland fish in 2010-11 was 12671.7 quintals and total rural population was 2067236. So the per capita availability of fresh water inland fish is only .0061 quintals or .613 kg per year. This is significantly low in respect of mass rural population of the district. If block wise production pattern is observed than it can be stated that Balasore district has highest mean fish production. Nilagiri block records lowest average inlandfresh water fish production (Fig6.21 B). The villagers are mostly afraid of monetary loss so they generally avoid any challenging decision in their life. So they are reluctant to switch over to a new crop production or a profitable business like inland fishing. Besides this, political preference is also an important factor controlling the decision makings. Cultivation is the most preferable option as this helps to give at least whole year food security. But at present it is unfortunately not bringing good results so they are thinking about an occupational switch. Cultivation gets affected due to the depression, cyclone and drought (locally termed as ‘moruri’). As subsidies also follow political preference or complicated rules, all the villagers are not assured. In general major carps are grown in these ponds and sold in the local market. On an average price of Ruhi (Labeo rohita) is Rs 150/- per kg, Katla (Katla katla) is Rs 120/- per kg per kg, mrigal (Cirrhinus cirrhosus) Rs 110/- etc. generating profit. 6.2.3 Brackish water: Brackish water has become the best alternative to the fishermen or the village. Keeping in mind the export demand and facility, prawn culture has been given foremost importance. According to the Fisheries Department, 17000 hectares of low lying brackish water area is present in the district and can be used for the development of fin and shell fish farming. According to Behuria.N.C (1992), ‘In the district of Baleshwar, out of 3236 hectares of brackish water, approximately 2560 hectares are feasible to undertake coastal aquaculture’. To encourage brackish water resource and fisheries development, Brackish Water Fisheries Development Agency has been established. The main aim was to increase prawn culture in the low lying areas close to the sea shore to enhance the scope for self employment. The main objectives of this agency were to bring prawn culture on a cooperative basis, collection of prawn seeds from natural resources and their transportation to the fish farmers. A pilot project on brackish water farming with financial assistance from Government of India has been started at Inchudi in Balasore district and pilot studies are being conducted since 1983. The agencies (Brackish water Fisheries Development Agency-B.F.D.A) have been set up newly in August 1983. Reclamation of the brackish water became significant for the development of rural areas including the standard of living. Numbers of schemes are implemented for the development of inland fishing. The leasing policies are implemented by the state government to attract the villagers for the proper utilization of the land resource. Government of Orissa has implemented the scheme for weaker section as well as for the stronger sections. In 1981 it was suggested by the state government that within the total brackish water resource of the district 75% will be reserved for the weaker sections of the society and 25% has to be reserved for the entrepreneurs/firms/ companies etc. In the contemporary time one individual is allowed to take only 0.5 ha of land on a long term lease for 15 years. The schemes are suggested separately for both confined water ponds and tide fed ponds. These schemes have helped the villagers to fulfill the necessary steps to find out the stability in the earning (Ref. Scheme 1 and 2). The first progress of the brackish water development in the district was applied by excavating the ponds as a step of IRDP or Integrated Rural Development Programme. From The statement can be used as a reference “Under Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) of Government of India, 78 ponds in one cluster covering of 15.79 ha. Areas at Jaydevkasaba in Balasore district have been developed during 1983-84 for brackish water prawn culture. Seventy eight beneficiaries under the IRDP schemes have been assisted with 33.33% subsidy support from the District Rural Development Agency, Balasore for the pond excavation and first crop input.”(p.54).1996-97 to 2010-11 the average production of the district was 2163.92 MT. The trend shows a positive nature as a gradual rise in the production can be noticed year after year. Brackish water fish production is most common in five blocks. Within these, Balasore produces almost 60% of the total districts production in 2011 {(1967.2/3288.2)*100=60%}. The Pisciculture in the inland ponds, with proper scientific method, can provide huge profits and this will ultimately help the unemployed and rural youth to bring stability and standard livelihood. In a 0.5 ha pond area estimated number approximately 5000 no of Indian Major Carp’s fingerlings can be stoked. With proper scientific method almost 15 to 25 quintals of fish harvest can be possible. In local markets these are sold at Rs/-120-130/ KG. If on an average 20 quintals production sold at a rate of Rs/-125 per Kg, in the market then total Rs/- 250000 can be earned. If the expenditure for this project is 120000 including buying fish fry, fish food, lime, urea, SSP, floating pallets, nets, labour wage, transport cost etc. then also the net profit from pisciculture becomes Rs/- 130000. From this profit further ponds and tanks can be kept under the pisciculture and profit can be attained.