Sarhasa : Tilathi is a village in Patarghat block of Saharsa district of Bihar. Today 45 year old Amarendra Kumar of the village has become an example in the entire area as a successful fish farmer. Amarendra, who once belonged to an ordinary farmer family, is today earning more than Rs 8 lakh annually from fish farming alone. His success is not only inspiring the youth of the village. Rather, it also proves that farming done scientifically, especially fisheries, can rapidly strengthen the economic condition of the farmer.
Farmer Amarendra was a clerk in the Water Board.
Let us tell you that Amarendra’s childhood was spent in a farming environment. After graduation, he worked as a clerk in Kolkata Jal Board for about two years, but during his job, he met farmers who were farming with modern technology and were earning good income. At the same time, the thought came to Amarendra’s mind that if farming is done properly, it can give more benefits than a government job. Amarendra says that in Bengal I saw that if farming is done scientifically, the income can increase manifold. From there, I got the inspiration to return to the village and do agriculture.
Left job and started farming
In 2001, Amarendra left his permanent job and returned to the village and focused on traditional farming of paddy, wheat and vegetables. He worked hard for many years, but around 2017-18 he realized that traditional farming alone was not yielding the desired profits. Then he started looking for alternative agricultural business. After closely examining the possibilities of fisheries, he started on a small scale, but as his experience increased, he became ready to invest on a large scale.
Grant of Rs 400000 has been received
In the year 2022, under the Chief Minister Matsya Vikas Yojana, Amarendra got a total project approval of Rs 8 lakh, which included a government grant amount of Rs 4 lakh. This help strengthened him and he dug three big and one small ponds in an area of about 4 acres. After this, he started fish farming in a modern way, in which he paid special attention to methods like water quality management, balanced fish seed selection, proper diet and regular monitoring.
Get fish from West Bengal
At the same time, Amarendra, who is always conscious about quality, sources high quality fish seed (fingerling) from Narayanpur village in Malda district of West Bengal. Initially he had released about one quintal i.e. about 50 thousand lines in the fingerling pond. While there were some initial problems due to the abundance of seeds, they gradually learned the technique of releasing seeds at the right density. The result of this improvement is that this year the production of more than 7 quintals of fish in one pond is being estimated.
Farmers can become rich with new technology
At the same time, today’s situation is that even after taking out the regular expenses, Amarendra easily gets a net profit of Rs 5 to 6 lakh. Seeing their success, the youth of nearby villages are also coming forward to adopt fisheries and take benefits of government schemes. Farmer Amarendra says that it is important that farmers should not shy away from learning new technology. Fishing is a business that demands both hard work and management, but if done properly, it can transform the financial condition of a family.
