Cage culture practices in Kabirdham district of Chhattisgarh: A case study

Abstract

Chhattisgarh state has 1,770 number of irrigation reservoirs having 0.826 lack hectare areas throughout the state, 912 cage units in 12 reservoirs are constructed for fish culture. Sarodha sagar and Chhirpani reservoir are small reservoir having the catchment area 194 km2 and 163 km2, respectively. There are total 99 cages in Sarodha sagar and 96 cages in Chhirpani reservoir were formed having 24 battery. Pangasianodon hypophthalmus (90-110 mm size) and Monosex Tilapia (30 gm weight) were used as a candidate species for stocking (5000 number per cage) in both cages. Fishes are fed with pelleted feed containing 32 % CP at 3–5 % body weight twice-a-day for 6-8 months. In 6-8 month of culture period, they attain the weight of about 1 kg. The average fish yield from per cage in both reservoirs is 4500 kg. A total of Rs. 32,422 was earned as net income from one cage in one batch. Cage culture has great opportunity to utilize large water bodies with great production potential to increase production from reservoirs and posed as an answer to fulfil the demand for animal protein in the country.