Kerala is the leading fish producing State in India. However, 97 per cent of the State's production is from the marine sector. Inland fish production accounts for only 3 per cent. Only 0.3 per cent comes from the reservoirs (Das et al., 1993). Despite the existence of many small reservoirs in the State, no serious attempts had been made, till recently, to develop them on scientific lines for fish yield optimisation. The State has now recognised the importance of inland fisheries and freshwater aquaculture. There are 30 dams in the State where inland fisheries and freshwater aquaculture can be developed. Palakkad district has nine dams (11,351 hectares), as the Bharathapuzha is extensively dammed for irrigation purposes. The Malampuzha reservoir is the largest irrigation dam in Kerala. The water spread area of the reservoir is 2,313 ha with a mean depth of 12.5m (maximum depth 28m). The State government initiated steps to develop the reservoir fisheries, way back in 1951, through a three-pronged strategy comprising large-scale production of major carp seed, stocking of carps and creation of breeding and rearing facilities at the reservoir sites. The first reservoir to be stocked with major carps was Malampuzha, where the fish seed obtained from Tamil Nadu and West Bengal was introduced in 1951. During the 22 years from 1951 to 1972, 2.553 million seed were stocked at an annual rate of 52 ha-1.
Breeding experiments
In 1963, a small fish seed farm consisting of five stocking ponds was constructed and induced breeding experiments were started. Even though breeding experiments commenced at Malampuzha in 1962, encouraging results were obtained only in the year 1967 after the establishment of a fresh water biological research station in 1967. In 1983-84, the Malampuzha seed farm was expanded to the status of National Fish Seed Farm under the Centrally sponsored scheme with Chinese circular hatchery facilities, 91 nursery ponds (1.0157 ha), 22 rearing ponds (0.7176 ha) and 14 stocking ponds (1.1158 ha) for the commercial production of quality carp seed, Mr. Namboothiri said.
Fish production
The total production from Malampuzha reservoir was increased from 14.4 tonnes valued at Rs.1.8 lakh in 1990-91 to 55.64 tonnes valued at Rs.34.42 lakh in 2006-07. In the last 17 years, the production from the reservoirs registered an impressive 3.9-fold increase. The average production for the past 17 years was 14.1 tonnes. The yield was increased from 6.2kg/ha in 1990-91 to 24.05 kg/ha in 2006-07.In 1992-98, a project called the 'Indo German Fisheries Development project (IGFP)' was started to examine the feasibility of organising alternative ways of producing and stocking material, using low-cost and easy-to-manage systems in reservoirs of Kerala (Rajts, 1993). Five reservoirs (Malampuzha, Peechi, Pothundi, Vazhani, and Chulliar) were covered under this project. Under the IGFP, considerable effort had been made (Taege et al 1993) towards continuous evaluation of stock composition and annual stock assessment in Malampuzha reservoir.
Fisheries management
During the appraisal of the IGFP, it is stated that yields up to 150kg/ha can be possible from the Malampuzha reservoir under effective culture-based fisheries management. After the implementation of the IGFP project, the production was increased and reached a maximum of 21.83 tonnes and an yield of 9.44kg/ha during 1994-95 as against 14.4 tonnes with an yield of 6.23 kg/ha in 1990-91. Another scheme for increasing reservoir productivity was the Rashtriya Sam Vikas Yojana (RSVY) funded by the Union government. The RSVY was implemented in the Malampuzha and Meenkara reservoir in 2003-04 to 2005-06. The total project allocation was Rs.40 lakh, of which Rs.2.12 lakh was for Meenkara reservoir.
The Hindu, July17, 2008
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