The severe drought this year has hit inland fisheries hard across the State as tanks and lakes are drying up. Officials in the Directorate of Fisheries say both production and sowing of inland fish have reduced by around 30% this year. Across the districts, fish production target reached only 65% and fingerling sowing has not crossed 70% of the target.
“There are four months to go before the fishing year 2023-24 is completed. But the production is very discouraging till now,’‘ said a senior officer. The monthly figures indicate that farmers have been able to release only around 60 crore fingerlings as against the target of around 90 crore. “Production till now is around four lakh tonnes, as against the target of around 5.5 lakh tonnes,’‘ according to the officer.
This has affected the livelihood of a large number of fishing families across the State. The tank fishing families are usually poorer, have less investment and infrastructure. Their condition is similar to the small farmers. Any reduction in output affects them more than the bigger, more established fishing families or societies,’‘ said Altaf Soudagar, who supplies tank fish to local markets and to markets in eastern Indian States.
No chance of rain
Raghu Shamanewadi, a fish breeder, said that he had invested around ₹1.25 lakh for purchase of fingerlings and payment of lease amount for three lakes. “But our returns are not promising. We are forced to take out smaller fish and sell them to wholesale traders for lesser prices. We used to keep them in ponds for 90-120 days. But we are taking them in 50-60 days as there is no chance of rain,’‘ he said. Long dry spells shrink the bodies of fish, he said.
Drought seems to have reduced the arrivals of inland fish to the markets in many districts. While officials maintain that there is a reduction of around 30%, traders say the shortfall is around 40-50%. “Talab Machchi (tank fish) arrivals were at around 20 tonnes per day, earlier. But now it is hardly reaching 10 tonnes per day,’‘ said Mr. Altaf. This has pushed up prices by around 20% compared to last season.
What govt. is doing
Mankal Vaidya, Minister for Fisheries, said: “We will consider including these fishermen in distress as beneficiaries in drought relief… This year, due to rainfall scarcity, we had a large storage of unsold fingerlings. But we came up with an innovative alternative method of preserving the fingerlings by developing them into spawns. Our officials are growing the unused fingerlings into around 90 crore spawns in 50,000 hectares of reservoirs and fish breeding farms in the State. They will be sold in the market to arrest the price rise that is likely next year,’‘ he said.
Karnataka has around 330 km of seashore and inland fish farming area of around 5.8 lakh hectares. Only three districts produce sea fish – Dakshina Kannada, Uttara Kannada, and Udupi. Dakshina Kannada with extensive fishing networks produces around 3.5 lakh tonnes, Udupi around 2.5 lakh tonnes, and Uttara Kannada around 1.5 lakh tonnes. Inland fisheries activities are found in every district, though the amount varies vastly. The State has around 10 lakh fishing families, besides about two lakh marginal fishermen who catch fish for subsistence in some months.
The State sets an annual average target to produce around 14 lakh tonnes of fish, of which 8 lakh tonnes is from the sea and around six lakh tonnes from inland fisheries. However, the average annual achievement is around 12.5 lakh tonnes, of which 7.5 lakh tonnes comes from the sea and around 5 lakh tonnes is produced by inland fishing communities. Last year, the State saw production of around 12. 6 lakh tonnes, valued at around ₹2,000 crore at the whole sale market.