Telangana’s ‘Blue Revolution’ yields high fish production like never before

HYDERABAD: Telangana's recent spell of heavy rains has led to an unexpected boon for farmers and fishermen alike, as lakes, ponds, and even farmlands are teeming with fish. The abundant rains have created breeding opportunities for fish, resulting in some astonishing discoveries.

On Saturday, a farmer Ravinder Reddy from Bommapur Village in Mahadevpur Mandal of Jayashankar Bhupalapalli district found a 15-kg fish on his farmland. When Ravinder reached there, he was surprised to see that there was a huge 15 kg Ribbon fish, locally known as Valuga.

"I have never seen such a big fish. It must have washed up on his farm due to heavy rains for the past few days," Ravinder felt.

Simiarly, a 16-kg huge fish was caught in Nalgonda-Shaligowraram Project due to abundant rains for the last one weeks.

Fishermen in Karimnagar too started catching fish from overflowing waterbodies. In fact, they have laid down nets on main roads, where where is overflowing and have been able to catch a lot of fish. This video went viral on Saturday.

Telangana's Blue Revolution

The above examples might sound bizzare but is not completely a stroke of luck. In an effort to boost fish production and support the sustainable livelihoods of fishermen, the Telangana Government had initiated the distribution of free fish seedlings in approximately 11,067 water bodies in 2017. This resulted in the stocking of around 51.08 crore fish seedlings at a cost of Rs 44.6 crore, leading to a fish production of 2.62 lakh tonnes after a period of 8-10 months. Since then, the number of fishlings and shrimp being released into water bodies, including reservoirs and tanks, has significantly increased.

Telangana boasts of the country’s third largest inland water spread, covering an area of 5.73 lakh square km across various water bodies, including reservoirs. This year, seedlings were released as early as February. The State Government has spent a total of Rs 415 crore for the scheme till so far.

Presently, Telangana ranks fifth in terms of freshwater fish production, valued at an estimated Rs 6,100 crore in the year 2022-23. This represents a three-fold growth compared to the fish production worth Rs 1,993 crore recorded in 2017-18.

There has been a 195 per cent increase in fish production in the State in the last 7 years. The Fisheries Department has catapulted its revenue from a meagre Rs 2,252 crore in 2016-17 to Rs 6,656 crore by 2022-23.

Over the same period, prawn production has also experienced considerable growth, rising from 7.78 tonnes valued at Rs 171.23 crore in 2017-18 to 11,734 tonnes worth approximately Rs 425 crore in 2022-23.

Thanks to various intervention programmes implemented by the State Government, both the average income levels of the Fishermen Cooperative Societies (FCS) and their members have seen significant increases. The number of FCSs has grown by 15 percent from 4,002 in 2016-17 to 4,604 in 2020-21, while membership has risen by eight percent during the same period, from 2.85 lakh in 2016-17 to 3.09 lakh in 2020-21.