Paramveer Singh and Rachna Gulati
Abstract
In the last five years, the state of Haryana has implemented a few high stocking density holding modern fish farming technologies such as Biofloc and Recirculation Aquaculture System (RAS) to boost farmersâ fish production. Besides this, RAS technology has the potential to filter water while reducing the danger of environmental contamination and disease outbreaks due to its unique characteristic of filtration systems. The primary goal of this face-to-face interview-based study was to determine the state of various variables, characteristics, RAS employeesâ skills, farmer engagement, and the role of the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) in the overall development of this technology in state of Haryana. The majority of RAS farms in Haryana (55%) employed unskilled employees, 25% employed mixed skilled and unskilled workers, and 20% employed just skilled workers. With the implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY), the majority of farmers (90%) received government subsidies for the construction of their high-cost RAS projects, while 5% of farmers built their RAS systems under the Blue Revolution scheme and 5% used their own resources to build the farms without any government assistance. On the other side, majority of RAS farmers (45%) sell their production stock to local district markets, while 30% opted to sell their stock inside and beyond the state, compared to 25% who sold their output within their district and State Haryana. All RAS farmers have single units of RAS for fish farming but only 70% RAS farms have 8-6 production tanks on their RAS farms. Whereas 95% of farmers have a power backup (generator) for the appropriate operation of RAS filtration during emergency hours, 35% of RAS farms have four aerators/units for improved filtration and fish survival under high stocking density technology.