Pisciculture farmers in troubled waters in AP

The pisciculture farmers of Kaikalur, Akiveedu and Bhimavaram in Krishna and West Godavari districts are a dejected lot now, thanks to the escalating feed cost and acute water shortage.

The Rs 300-crore industry, which turns out 10-12 tonnes of fish a year, is now fast heading towards a major crisis, that may even lead to the closure of many units.

"Pisciculture has turned many a common man into millionaires. But if the present situation continues this year also, we have to close down all the units, and around 20,000 of us will be deprived of livelihood," say the farmers. They appealed to chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu to come to their rescue.

First of all, the season for discharge of fish seed into the tanks did not begin in July, as water had not been released in the irrigation canals.

The rains also came late. When rains arrived in September and October, farmers discharged fish seed into tanks in a hurry, hoping for release of water into the irrigation canals at a later date.

The 3-lakh acre tanks, ranging from 100 acre tanks to 3 acre tanks, will be ready for fish catch in May. But as the government decided not to release water for the rabi crop in the irrigation canals, the farmers have become panicky. The tanks do not have sufficient water now and the water level in them is slowly receding day by day.

"The feed cost was steeply hiked last year. Fish rates plunged to Rs 27 a kg, and the tank lease rates ranged from Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 a acre, throwing 99 per cent of pisciculturists into heavy losses. We incurred a loss of Rs 20,000 an acre. Forty per cent of the farmers dropped out of fish-rearing when the fish seed discharge operations began in September," they lamented.

Rice husk cake cost hovering over Rs 30,000 per ten tonnes is still high from farmers' viewpoint though it came down from last year's Rs 38,000.

Other feed like cotton cake (Rs 65,000 to Rs 1,00,000 per ten tonnes), soybean cake (Rs 1.6 lakh per ten tonnes), sunflower cake (Rs 60,000 per ten tonnes) and groundnut cake (Rs 1.2 lakh per ten tonnes) are also priced exorbitantly. Diesel rate has remained at Rs 22 a litre.

"There is no water even in the drains which run along the fields. There are no farm borewells in the Kaikalur-Akiveedu area as they pour out only saline water, which is not fit for either cultivation or fish rearing. Left with no other option, the farmers have resorted to whatever water available in the nearby paddy fields, by beg, borrow or steal methods. But this will also not continue for a long time," the pisciculturists said.

The farmers appealed to the government to take measures to reduce the fish feed prices and solve water shortage problem at least this season.

"Otherwise, the year 2004 will write an epitaph for pisciculture, which till recently contributed a large share to exports and agri economy," they said.