International Journal of Aquaculture, 2018, Vol.8, No.12, 90-97
90
Research Article Open Access
Composite Fish Farming in West Bengal, India: Redesigning Management
Practices during the Course of Last Five Decades
Banasree Biswas
1
, S.K. Das
1
, Ipsita Mondal
2
, Amit Mandal
3
1 Department of Aquaculture, Faculty of Fishery Sciences, West Bengal University of Animal and Fishery Sciences, Chakgaria, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
2 Fishery Extension Office, Raghunathpur-1 Block, Purulia, West Bengal, India
3 Department of Aquaculture, College of Fisheries, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana, Punjab, India
Corresponding author Email
International Journal of Aquaculture, 2018, Vol.8, No.12 doi
Received: 13 Apr., 2018
Accepted: 04 May, 2018
Published: 11 May, 2018
Copyright © 2018
Biswas et al., This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article
:
Biswas B., Das S.K., Mondal I., and Mandal A., 2018, Composite fish farming in West Bengal, India: redesigning management practices during the course of
last five decades, International Journal of Aquaculture, 8(12): 90-97 (doi
Abstract
Composite carp farming is a poly-species pond culture system in which three Indian major carps (IMC) (
Labeo catla
,
Labeo rohita
and
Cirrhinus mrigala
) are co-stocked with three exotic major carps (
Hypophthalmicthys molitrix
,
Ctenopharyngodon
idella
and
Cyprinus carpio
). This system is a practical modification of the original three species IMC polyculture so as to fill the
vacant niches in a pond ecosystem for optimizing internal resource utilization and thereby a means of increasing productivity. Such
system was officially introduced during 1971 with standard management protocols and established as the mainstay in inland
aquaculture practice in India. During the course of almost half a century, several alterations in every stages of management of
composite carp culture have been made by the farmers solely guided by their experiences and acquired expertise through the ages
which are proved economical. The present review discussed the alterations made by the farmers in composite farming based upon the
findings recorded in two purposively selected districts (East Burdwan and 24 Pgs. (N) in West Bengal, India as the state is one of the
highest producers of carps in the country.
Keywords
Composite farming; India; Management; Redesigning
Background
India is a major producer of fish through aquaculture (Goswami and Zade, 2015) and ranks second in the world in
inland fish production which increased from 0.7 million tonnes in 1951 to 10.79 million tonnes in 2015-16
(DAHDF, 2017) where, aquaculture contributed 78% of the country's total fish production. Until the nineteenth
century, carp culture was dependent upon the wild riverine seed and farming was confined to backyard ponds in
the eastern Indian states of West Bengal, Odisha and Bihar. In 1957, hatchery and hypophysation breeding
techniques of Indian major carps (IMC) were developed which ultimately triggered the growth of inland
aquaculture sector of the country. Though availability of hatchery bred seed was secured, farming of major carps
continued principally as IMC polyculture usually in three or four species combinations incorporating minor carps
also. Between 1963 and 1984, successful demonstration of polyculture systems based on Indian and exotic carps
by the Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute (CIFRI), Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) in West
Bengal and a successful demonstration programme by the Fish Farmers Development Agencies (FFDAs) resulted
in the commercialization of IMC polyculture with the introduced exotics from neighbouring China (Jhingran, 1991).
1 Composite Fish Farming
India is known as the carp culture country (Dhawan and Kaur, 2005) where the terminology as
carp polyculture
has been changed to
composite carp culture
during the seventies when co-stocking of compatible exotic carps
with IMCs has been demonstrated and gradually popularized as a high-yielding polyculture production system
among the Indian fish farmers (Sinha, 1985). Composite fish culture aims at fuller utilization of ecological niches
by culturing together fast growing six compatible species (3 Indian major carps; catla:
Labeo catla
, rohu:
Labeo
rohita
, mrigal:
Cirrhinus mrigala
and 3 exotic carps; grass carp:
Hypophthalmicthys molitrix
, silver carp:
Ctenopharyngodon idella
, common carp:
Cyprinus carpio
) of complimentary feeding habits, which in turn
resulted in lucrative financial return ICAR (2016).
