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Cage Culture – the future of Fisheries
Enhancing the fish production from the brackish and marine waters as also the fresh waters will call for major technological interventions. Since the government is very keen that we should achieve an additional production of 5 million tonnes by the end of 2020, grounding appropriate technologies become more imperative. Optimal utilization of the already developed technologies is also a case worthy of serious scrutiny. Several useful technologies are languishing in the laboratories. It is in this context that we examine one such technology that has the potential for expanding our production base manifold in a short time. Cage culture, to my mind, is the future of Indian fisheries, for several reasons. I will list some of these:

Land availability is a constraint in most states so, to keep digging more ponds for fish production will not be that easy. Barring some hilly states and a few states of the north eastern region, most of our states cannot afford to earmark a lot of land for fisheries purposes. Most of the productive land is under agriculture or horticulture and diverting such productive lands for fisheries is generally not seen as a wise choice given the constraints of food security. For such states cage culture could be a worthy option to consider. And, we have a large number of fresh water reservoirs in the country, mostly unutilized from fisheries point of view. India has 3.15 million hectares of reservoirs and more than 5 lakh hectares of flood plain wetlands, spread across the numerous river basins in the country. The yield from the reservoirs is low, to the extent of about 82Kg/ha. The NFDB’s experience of stocking the small reservoirs of the country has been reasonably successful, but that would not be sufficient to make a big difference to the fishery basket of the country. So, it will be necessary for us to focus on the medium and large reservoirs and a quick and good way to enhance fish production several times over will be optimally harnessing the vast fresh water resources of these reservoirs, located almost all over the country. I should be happy to inform the esteemed readers that the NFDB’s initial investments in Jharkhand in sanctioning a few cages for a few of their reservoirs have confirmed the enormous potential the technology has to increase the fresh water fish production in the country. Now, several other states are following suit and following the Jharkhand example. This opens up another issue. How do we go about establishing the cage culture in the country? What is the system for it, and what ought to be the guidelines to which we should conform to? Unplanned expansion of cage culture could have disastrous consequences to the fragile ecosystem of the reservoirs. So, there is a felt need to create a framework, or a set of guidelines that all the stakeholders would have to adhere to. So, a national level committee to develop guidelines for cage culture in inland open waters was constituted by the NFDB, in April, 2016 with a mandate to: (a) To assess the potential of cage culture system to contribute to increased production (b) To assess the possible environmental and socio-economic impact (c) To suggest precautions to be taken and (d) To suggest the modes of propagating and scaling up of this technology to optimize benefits on a sustainable manner. The committee had met several times and drafted a comprehensive set of guidelines that were vetted several times by experts and published and released as ‘Guidelines for Cage culture in Inland Open water bodies of India’. The guidelines are hosted on the nfdb.gov.in website for use by public at large. The guidelines cover several aspects of cage culture, the material required and the process of maintenance, species selection, stocking density, environmental precaution and impact assessment and issues relating to the governance, etc. There are of course, other social concerns, relating to the ownership, beneficiaries and governance. Since reservoir based cage culture is practiced in common property resources, the critical question will be the one relating to who can set up and own the cages in a reservoir. Almost all the large and medium reservoirs in the country are owned by the government or government agencies and fishers have been using these water bodies with free access. So, protecting the interests of the fishermen is of as much importance as it is, of enhancing the fish production. It should also be noted that livelihoods of several poor people depend upon catching fish from the reservoirs. Further, in certain cases, several people ousted due to the establishment of the reservoirs need to be also rehabilitated in order to ensure that their livelihoods are restored. Therefore, in the cage culture guidelines this aspect has been very carefully and sensitively considered. Likewise, the governance structure should be based on co-management principles and should be the central philosophy for any intervention through cage culture in reservoirs. That brings us to the marine cage culture systems. The CMFRI has already successfully demonstrated the utility of cage culture systems for species like Cobia and Silver Pompano. They will need to develop the brood banks and hatchery infrastructure on the coast line, so the interested fishermen can form the SHGs and undertake the cage culture of Cobia and Silver Pompano. The NFDB is actively considering the proposals of the CMFRI and several maritime states so the marine cage culture also contributes to the fish production in the country through an intensified system. On balance, it can be concluded that cage culture in inland open waters as well as marine waters is going to emerge as a fast growing activity and a money spinner. Treading the cage culture path will not just call for technical expertise, but also a sensitive and environmentally conscious decision-making. I see a great future for cage culture in the country.