Feature Story. Bastar of Chhattisgarh was considered a stronghold of red terror, where only gunshots and gunfire could be heard, but now it is not so. Here now the story of development of Bhupesh Sarkar speaks. Farmers are earning crores from fish farming here. Unprecedented changes have been seen in the green area of Bastar due to the blue revolution. The picture of highly Naxalite affected area Koylibeda has started changing. This area has made a special place on the map of the country in cluster approach based fisheries. More than five thousand farmers are associated with fish farming in Pakhanjur area.
The picture of Koylibeda development block of Kanker district of the state has started changing. Pakhanjur area of this development block is making a new place in the country in the name of fish production. Now this area is a well known name on the fisheries map of the country. Fish farming is being done here on cluster approach. This has become possible because of the hard work of the farmers of Pankhajoor area of Koylibeda development block and the help of the schemes of the government.
Under the leadership of Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, in the last four and a half years, Chhattisgarh is progressing progressively in every field and a new identity of Chhattisgarh is being established in the whole country. More than five thousand fish farmers are associated with fish farming in Pakhanjur area. On what scale fish farming is being done here, it can be gauged from the fact that the average annual turnover by these farmers in fish seed, production and transportation of fish etc. is more than 500 crores. There are about 19,700 ponds in this region, out of which fish farming is being done in about 99 percent of the ponds.
Fish farming with the help of farmers
The farmers of this region brought a revolution in this region as a result of their hard work and skill and the schemes of the government. These families took forward the work of fish farming with the help of local farmers. Now this work has spread in the surrounding villages of Pakhanjur development block. Along with fish production, fish seed is also being produced here. From here fish seed is supplied to different parts of the country including Maharashtra, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh. Farmers earn about Rs 125 crore from fish seed alone.
Story of Pakhanjur’s Badekapsi village
The story of Pakhanjur’s Badekapsi village is even more encouraging, farmers in 5 nearby villages are doing collective fish farming. In these villages, 1700 ponds have been built for fish farming, in which 30 thousand metric tonnes of fish are produced. The people of the village tell that now leaving the traditional farming work, people are now moving towards fish farming business, because it is a low-cost, high-profit business. Many of his fields in the villages have now been converted into ponds for fish farming.
In Pakhanjur region, this technique of fish farming in cluster approach is becoming increasingly popular among farmers. About 12 thousand 500 hectares of water area is available for fish farming in these villages. Apart from this, 27 hatcheries, 45 farms, 1623 ponds, 1132 hatchery enrichment ponds are available here. 72 crore fish seeds are being produced here. Out of this, 64 crore fish seeds are sent to different states of the country.
About 51000 metric tonnes of fish is being produced here due to modern techniques of fish farming in Pakhanjur area. Here, 12000 metric tonnes of fish are being produced in fish production of 8000 per hectare water area. Apart from this, 80 million pegasus fish seeds are also being produced here. Pagasius fish seed is sent to different parts of the country for fish farming through cage culture.
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