Hands on Training Programme on Fish and Prawn Culture for Bihar Farmers, Kakinada Centre (Andhra Pradesh)  

Background  

CIFE has signed a MoU with Department of Fisheries, Govt. of Bihar for providing technical and policy support as well as capacity building of its staff and farmers to bring about a blue revolution in Bihar. Also in its endeavour to serve the fishing and farming community, CIFE has embarked upon an ambitious programme of training 1000 farmers from Bihar every year. The hands-on programme is underway and three batches of farmers have successfully been trained already.    

 Objectives

Outputs

Approach

Training is imparted in an interactive and participatory way in order to learn the aquaculture practice in field condition. The trainees will be encouraged to share their experiences and will have ample opportunities to clarify their doubts. Participants will undergo pre-training and post-training evaluation tests.

The farmers are advised to bring brief write up on their unique experiences, innovations, indigenous knowledge, constraints, if any, while coming to the training programme as a pre-training exercise to be completed in consultation with Department of Fisheries.

The training programme is tightly scheduled. The participants, however, will enjoy this programme. 

Course outline

Fish Culture:

Theory:

Site selection, design and pond construction; Species selection and pond preparation- fertilization   & its importance; Soil and water quality management; principles of fish culture and adoptable practices; feed and feed management; harvesting, post harvesting and transportation method; and economics of fish culture and common diseases and control methods

Practical:

Species identification; weed control, fertilization with organic and inorganic fertilizers; plankton collection & determination of ideal densities.  Predatory fish control; water analysis; sampling and growth assessment; feeding preparation and application methods 

Prawn culture:

Theory:

Pond design, lay out & pond preparation; Nursery rearing; grow out culture- all- male and all- female culture ; feed and feed management; poly culture of prawn and fish; common diseases and its control methods. Economics of monoculture and poly culture of prawn and fish;

Practical:

Pond preparation   and  fertilization methods for nursery and grow out ponds; seed quality identification;  acclimatization &  stocking process,  identification of male and female morphotypes; sampling and growth analysis; feed and feeding practices ;  water monitoring practices.

Partial harvesting methods and final harvesting. Use of appropriate gears. 

Field Visits:

On - Farm demonstrations at private prawn farms (1 day)

Nursery rearing methods, hand- sexing of juvenile prawns for monosex culture: Sample nettings of nursery and grow out ponds, boat feeding & management method. Partial culling of bulls (BC) methodology and practices of harvesting.

Water management: Intake system, drain (sluice design) and its operation for draining. Health management: and examination of various stages of prawns for screening of disease. 

On- Farm demonstrations at private Fish hatcheries and seed farms (1 day):

Commercial breeding of carps, seed rearing methods, marketing, transportation methods for short and long distance place. Natural prawn seed collection centre at Dowleswaram where prawn migration occurs. 

On -Farm demonstration at private carp culture ponds (2 days)

Over view of large grow out ponds,maintenance, pond fertilization, stocking composition and size at stocking, feed ingredients, composition and application method; sampling by cast   netting; harvesting of pond; post harvest method.  Ice packing transportation at Fish packing & transportation units.

 Visit to Scampi hatcheries to observe hatchery operation, components of prawn hatchery; water filtration method, larval rearing tanks.  PL collection & examination of PL; quality testing of seed and transportation methods for long distance

Visit to Pumpa Reservoir at Annavaram forappraisal of management practices, gears and crafts used and production details. 

Close interaction with owners of farm on seed transportation, selection of hatcheries, seed quality, cost of seed etc. Inputs for pond preparation, feed ingredients, composition,    feeding method, schedules, partial & final harvest netting, labour input per crop, watch &ward/farm maintenance, growth, survival and production details; Economics of culture, marketing practices, constraints and other issues, if any.

Training Calendar (2006-2007)