Drass glows with employment opportunities as fish farming takes centre stage

Kargil, Nov 25: In a significant recognition of outstanding achievements in the realm of fisheries, the National Fisheries Development Board under the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, has unveiled a compelling book featuring '100 Super Success Stories from Indian Fisheries.'

Among the illustrious names in this exclusive compilation are Amina Bano and Muhammad Ilyas, two fish farmers from the Drass sub-division. Positioned at serial numbers 51 and 52, their remarkable success stories have earned them a prestigious spot in this compilation, shedding light on their noteworthy contributions to the flourishing Indian fisheries sector.

Muhammad Ilyas, hailing from Majidam Village in Kargil district, Ladakh, has the option of pursuing government or private employment given his educational background. However, he decided to venture into fish farming. Despite his initial desire to engage in farming, the challenging and harsh cold climate conditions in Ladakh hindered his plans. Upon discovering that fish farming could yield more income with less effort, he was motivated to adopt this approach as a solution to his financial challenges.

Under the opportunity provided by the Department of Fisheries, he applied for the "Trout Culture in Raceways" activity under Blue Revolution in FY 2017-18. With the financial assistance received under the scheme, he constructed one raceway with a productioncapacity of 0.35-0.50 tonnes and stocked 300 numbers of rainbow trout fingerlings.

He got financial assistance of Rs 3.60 lakh for input cost against the total project cost of 4.50 lakh and the investment by himself. Trout farming has enhanced his socio-economic conditions, ensuring regular income.

He has expressed his intentions to expand his unit by constructing an additional raceway under the PMMSY scheme. Seeing the development, his parents helped him in managing the unit while providing employment and supporting the unemployed youth by guiding them to start a business in the fisheries sector.

This is an example of entrepreneurship qualities displayed by the beneficiary. Another woman entrepreneur, Amina Begum Gindiyal is a resident of Majidam Village of Kargil district, Ladakh. She is a homemaker and wanted to improve her economic standard by farming, Due to the unfavourable, harsh, and cold climatic conditions of her locality which is second to Siberia in terms of coldest inhabited place, she could not start any farming other than trout culture in a flow-through system.

The high demand for fresh-farmed fish also motivated her to do trout culture. With the opportunity provided by the Government of India, she applied for the "Trout Culture activity in Raceways" under the Blue Revolution Scheme FY 2017-18. With support from the government, she constructed one raceway with a production capacity of 0.35-0.50 tonnes and stocked 300 rainbow trout fingerlings. She got financial assistance of 3.60 lakh for the first-yéar input cost against a total project cost of 4.50 lakh. The rest of the amount was adjusted by her.

Trout farming has uplifted her socioeconomic conditions ensuring regular livelihood and income. She wants to expand her business by constructing additional raceways for which she would opt for financial support under the PMMSY scheme. The outcome generated through the unit drew the interest of her spouse and he started helping her in managing the unit. Through their small efforts, trout culture is gaining popularity in the region and providing sustainable income to the family.

While highlighting the significance of achievement Assistant Director Fisheries Kargil said that over the past four years, the Administration of Union Territory of Ladakh has expedited the developmental progress and scripted many success stories by implementing various Centrally Sponsored Schemes in the region similarly in the Fisheries sector also the Blue Revolution & Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Youjna (PMMSY) are one of such those centrally sponsored schemes that has not only helped to create employment opportunities to the educated unemployed youth by providing them incentives for construction of Trout rearing units but also provides them a diversified form of farming with less managerial practice requirement and high returns in comparison to other conventional form of farming.