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Zhemgang farmers take up fishery
Bishal Rai
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Peri-urban warm water fishery at Wangdigang |
Fresh local fish will be available in urban Zhemgang by mid March this year. And this time it will not be illegal catches from the Mangdechu but from a warm water fishery established at Wangdigang which will gather its first harvest a fortnight from now.
Established by east central region agriculture development project (ECR-ADP), Helvetas, and implemented by the dzongkhag livestock sector under the ‘local development initiative’ the fishery, about 15 kilometres from Zhemgang town was established last May at a cost of Nu. 56,000.
District livestock officer Tshering Penjore said three farmers from the Wangdigang village under Trong geog had come with the proposal to establish the fishery, as a means of an extra income generating source. The 15 households of Wangdigang village lived on subsistence farming and livestock.
“We saw a huge potential in establishing the fishery as there is a huge demand in the market,” Tshering Penjore said adding that the Khengpas were fond of eating fish.
Zhemgang consumed fish supplied from Dadghari in Assam which borders Gelephu town but its supply had come to an abrupt halt when the Gelephu border gate was sealed last year because of the security situation.
Fish supply had resumed with the border gate opened but the supply was not regular. A kilogramme of fish cost Nu.80 in urban Zhemgang according to a local resident.
Tshering Penjore told Kuensel that until the harvest is over from the Wangdigang fishery, the import from Dadghari will be regulated to enable the fishing farmers to have a competition-free market.
A total of 2500 fingerlings were introduced from the national warm water fish culture centre at Gelephu, at the 70 feet by 30 feet pond and with a depth of 4 feet.
One of the farmers was trained on fish culture and he had appointed his eldest son, Jambayang, among eight other children as the caretaker of the pond.
Jambayang, 17, told Kuensel that he has to lookout for children throwing stones at the grass crap and the common crap, the two species introduced at the fishery, besides feeding them.
“Many of the fishes have grown to weigh over a kilogramme now,” he said. About eight hundred kilogrammes is expected from the first harvest.
Project manager of ECR-ADP Dorji Wangdi said the fishery initiated under the local development initiative (LDI) was one of the four components of the project that began in early 2003.
Under the LDI, the project supported formation of dairy groups, poultry, oil processing and cornflakes or tengma, among others.
Such groups were being formed among the four central dzongkhags. In Zhemgang, besides the fishery, two dairy groups were being formed, a few farm roads construction had been provided with technical support, and a market shed in Zhemgang town had been set up.
The project also supported dzongkhag and geog plans, human resource development, communication and dissemination among the dzongkhags.
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