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Assam is the land of natural resources. There are
many type of water-bodies like Beels (natural water areas)
and ponds throughout the state but there has been no concerted
effort for pisciculture in a scientific manner. The demand
for fish can not be met with the meager quantity produced
in the State. As a result, the State has to import fish from
Andhra Pradesh siphoning out a sizeable amount from the State.
To contribute towards meeting the deficit in fish supply by
way of producing fish locally, the Bank has taken a special
plan to provide financial support to the entrepreneurs to
produce fish on commercial basis. To start with, the Bank
selected Haribhanga Beel with water area of 120 hactres which
is located at Village Haribhanga under Samaguri Revenue Circle
in Nagaon District for production of fish as a Pilot Project.
The Haribhanga Beel is connected with two perennial source
of water, viz. Lailuri Jaan and Haribhanga Jaan. The Beel
was taken on lease by one Shri Sanjiv Sarkar for 5 years with
effect from 2002-03 with a provision of renewing the lease
agreement. Usually there has been reluctance to finance such
Beels due to short term Lease Agreement. As a result, the
entrepreneurs had to borrow fund from private money-lenders
at very high rate of interest. Due to high cost of fund the
entrepreneurs hesitated to invest money for implementation
of modern method/technology in such a venture. Moreover, there
is a risk of drainage of fishes during rainy season due to
inundation of such water bodies.
The Officials from Guwahati Regional Office of NABARD along
with the Chairman of Lakhimi Gaonlia Bank made an in-depth
study of such water areas with special emphasis on Haribhanga
Beel and they were convinced that fish may be protected using
scientific method by way of construction of bamboo barrack
(Bana) covered by nylon net surrounding the periphery of the
Beel, eradication of weeds like water hyacinth (Meteka), testing
of water quality parameters like dissolving oxygen, BoD, PH
, alkanity, plankton estimation, stocking of adequate number
and size of fingerlings, purchase of boats ant nets so as
to increase the productivity of the Beel improving fish-catch
on a sustainable basis.
After in depth study of the project considering all relevant
aspects, the Bank decided to extend financial assistance of
Rs.10.00 lacs to the lessee Shri Sanjiv Sarkar to develop
the Beel and culture fish in a scientific manner. To get rid
of the weeds, the Bank financed Rs.3.00 lacs for culture of
Grass Carp (a hybrid variety of fish which consumes almost
all the weeds). The growth of this variety of fish is quite
rapid and a fingerling grows up to about 3 kilograms in a
year yielding a market price of Rs.80.00 per kilogram. The
Bank financed the rest amount for clearing and development
of the water area, procuring nets and boats, making of bamboo
barrack etc.
Prior to bank loan Shri Sanjiv Sarkar could hardly pay the
lease charge and maintain his family. But after availing the
bank loan, total income from the project has been estimated
at Rs. 32.00 lakhs during the remaining lease period. Moreover,
he has engaged 20 permanent and 150 part time workers in this
project. Moreover, the people of the surrounding area will
also be able to engage themselves in some other ancillary
business like transportation of fishes, door-to-door selling
of fishes (Small vendors) etc.
The Bank has taken this project on pilot basis and has a plan
to extend such project to other areas also. It is observed
that major portion of such natural water bodies lying un-utilized
in the state of Assam can be utilized for scientific pisciculture
if all other banks come forward to assist the entrepreneurs
as well as to make Assam self sufficient in fish production
in near future.
It is expected that the financing of Haribhanga Beel by Lakhimi
Gaonlia Bank will set an example for the others in such venture.
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