Success Stories In Asian Aquaculture - Library - Network of ...

6 Enhancing Rural Farmer Income through Fish Production121Box 6.1 (continued)Common carp – 328.6Mrigal – 73.2Bighead carp – 794.7Rohu – 317.5Total – 1514.0As the effective reservoir area (i.e., 50% of the reservoir area at FSL) is 13.6 ha,the total harvest was about 20,600 kg . With the farm-gate price of Rs. 40 kg −1 , thevalue of this harvest was about Rs. 825,000. The net profit was therefore over Rs.800,000. He pays 3% of his profit to the FO after every harvest.This financial boost motivated Mr. Karunadasa to take to CBF, and hecontinued to stock the reservoir annually. The number of fingerlings stockedin the subsequent years (29,000 in 2003, 20,000 in 2004, 25,000 in 2005,30,000 in 2006, and 25,800 in 2007) was more or less the same. He hasbecome one of the richest in the village through CBF in Dozer wewa. In 2005,however, this reservoir has now become a perennial reservoir after the diversionof water from an irrigation development project (Galamuna IrrigationDevelopment Project). This has changed the species composition in the reservoir,because carnivorous fish species such as Glossogobius giuris , Ompokbimaculatus also entered into reservoir. After this water diversion, evidently,the CBF harvest in the reservoir declined from 20,600 kg in 2003 to 8,700 kgin 2004, 9,760 kg in 2005 and 6,400 kg in 2006. Mr. Karunadasa’s success inCBF in Dozer wewa was attributed to his own interest and personal capacity,knowledge about local resources, management skills, social integration andharmony, and institutional (NAQDA) support.In April 2005, Mr. Karunadasa established a mini-nursery to rear fish fry uptofingerling size to stock in Dozer wewa. In his mini-nursery, there is a capacity torear about 180,000 fingerlings in a culture cycle. Mr. Karunadasa buys fish fryfrom the state-owned aquaculture development centre in Udawalawe at the costof 25 cents per fry. Seven members of FO assist him to maintain the mini-nursery.Three culture cycles are carried out per year to rear fry upto fingerlings andon average 100,000 fingerlings are produced per culture cycle. The selling priceof the fingerling is Rs. 2.00. Considering the cost of feeding of fingerlings usinglocally available feed, such as rice bran, the net income from fingerling productioncan be estimated to be over Rs. 100,000 per culture cycle.Establishment of community-based mini-nurseries for rearing fish fingerlingsis one of the activities of ADB-funded project. As minor-perennial reservoirs(