Fish farming empowers women in Andhra Pradesh

Until a few years ago, the tribal women of Kodikallavalasa village in Pachipenta Mandal of Andhra Pradesh were involved in collecting and selling firewood from the forest for a mere ₹ 40 per day. The Jaljeevika an NGO, in association with the “Tata Trust” and the State Fisheries Department, introduced these women to the cage culture in 2016. Despite initial reluctance, 10 women from Kodikallavalasa showed interest in learning this innovative technology after their exposure to the success of cage culture in Dimbhe Reservoir, Pune. The Jaljeevika organized training for them and taught them to construct cages from locally available material. These women learned technicalities of cage culture, cage maintenance, ornamental fish rearing, and fish feed management, disease management etc.

In October 2017, they experienced their first success when they sold 5,000 fish weighing about 65 kg and earned ₹ 10,800. ICAR-CIFA acknowledged their success and awarded them the “Entrepreneur of the Year award” to the Self-Help Group (SHG) in 2021. In 2017, Jaljeevika introduced more than 160 rural people from four districts of Andhra Pradesh (Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram, Srikakulam, and Anantapur) to efficient fish farming techniques. According to the NGO, these initiatives fetched nearly ₹ 1.1 crores in a year. Women’s success in fish farming has inspired men too, and the men’s cooperative started getting sustainable income through fish farming.

During Covid, providing the pandemic situation got worsened for the local fish farming community, and during post covid times, the collective is engaged in fish seed enterprises and selling fish in the local market. Jaljeevika framed a plan to establish women fish farmers’ FPC to have infrastructure support for market linkages. 

Source : NFDB