Scheme revives fishermen cooperative societies

Buoyed by last year's results of a government emergency sustenance scheme, the fisheries department has extended the programme to about 30 fishermen cooperative societies this year (2006-07) in Guntur district.

The societies, which have a membership of 70-300 each, collapsed as drought hit the district for four consecutive years. They have now revived and are on way to net substantial income.

The societies, which include some Scheduled Caste societies, belong to Tenali, Vemur, Kolluru, Amrutalur, Tsundur, Duggirala, Kollipara and Chebrole mandals. The scheme helped them take about 100 gram panchayat tanks on lease in the above mandals.

The Department of Fisheries has nursed 13 lakh fish seed at its Kuchipudi fish farm and is supplying month-old fingerlings to these societies, according to P Madhavilatha, fisheries development officer.

She told Business Standard that the department was targeting to supply 16 lakh fish seed in 2006-07 on 50 per cent subsidy to OC societies and on 100 per cent subsidy to SC societies. It is also providing them necessary technical guidance. The harvest is expected to be around 2-3 tonne per hectare.

Last year, she said, 14 fishermen societies, including two SC societies, were supplied 4.6 lakh fish seedlings on a trial basis. As prolonged drought hit the district before last year, the panchayat tanks dried up. About 8,000 fishermen of the defunct societies were living in miserable conditions.

The societies, which made use of the scheme, sold away fish at Rs 32-37 per kg and earned Rs 1 lakh net profit per tank, after incurring an expenditure of Rs 25,000 per tank.

The Kuchipudi farm, Madhavilatha said, stocked 3-day-old fish seedlings (size 5 mm) and reared them for a month when they attained a length of 1.5 inch. It supplied fingerlings to societies till the former became advanced and reached a size of 3 inches.

The department supplied societies with seeds of katla (bocche), rohu (ragandi) and mrigala (masu) fish varieties. It charged three paise per seed of katla, 2.5 paise per rohu seed and 3 paise per masu seed. It also supplied fishermen plankton as fish feed, which cost them a reasonable Rs 10-12 per kg.