World Aquaculture 53 Fish culture in horticulture-based polythene-lined farm ponds: Status and potential Sudhakar T. Indulkar1 and Satyajit S. Belsare2 India with its vast inland and marine bio-resources is the third largest producer of fish in the world and second largest producer of inland fish. Fish production in India has shown excellent growth during the past half century with approximately 6.4 million t in 2005-2006 from a meager 0.60 million t in 1950. The fisheries sector provides employment to seven million fishermen and fish farmers. The fisheries sector contributes nearly US$44 billion, 1.07 percent of the national gross domestic product (GDP) and 4.6 percent to agricultural GDP. The fisheries sector is one of the major contributors to foreign exchange earnings of the Country. As compared to the other states of India, the state of Maharashtra has a great potential for freshwater aquaculture, even then the total fish production from the inland sector has been fairly stable during the past decade, ranging from 125,000-135,000 t. Inasmuch as the state is exploiting and reaching maximum potential fish production from the marine sector, it is necessary to place more emphasis on inland areas for fish production. Status of Resources The potential for integrated farming in freshwater is considerable. Fish culture in water stored for irrigation purposes has the potential to maximize food production and economic return per unit area of land. The water body area available for culture based capture fisheries in the state is estimated as 0.3 million ha of ponds, lakes and reservoirs. A portion of more than 50,000 ha of unproductive, saline sugarcane land offers good potential for freshwater fish and shrimp culture. In addition to this, under the National Horticulture Mission Scheme of Agriculture Department, Government of India, agriculturists and horticulturists are constructing polythenelined farm ponds for storing water for horticulture crops. The areas of farm ponds vary from 0.2 to 0.6 ha with an average depth of about 7.0 m depending upon the total crop area to be irrigated. In Maharashtra in each block, every year more than 20-30 such ponds are being constructed under the National Horticulture Mission Scheme of Agriculture Department, Government of India. There are about 2,760 such ponds (2007-2008) available, which have good potential for fish culture (Table 1). The fish culture trials undertaken during last 2-3 years Polythene-lined farm pond with orchard of grapes in the background. Ready for market.
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