After he passed his ITI course in 2001, Akhaya Kumar Sahu of Astapura village of Mayurbhanj wanted to do something on his own. He took up fish seed rearing as a challenge and started fry production in his one acre pond by bringing spawn from Bankura in West Bengal.
The project was developed with financial assistance from SBI and Sahu received the subsidy. In the first year, he made an income of `5 lakh.
In 2003, Sahu added another two acres of water area to the project, sold six tonnes of fry and got a profit of `15 lakh.
He further expanded his farm by constructing more tanks under Fish Farmers’ Development Agency of the district and asked his younger brother, an MBA, to join the business. Together they set up Odisha’s largest fish hatchery complex, Kailash Fisheries and Aquatics, to breed more than 18 varieties of fish. They also started a scampi hatchery in 2007 that produced Scampi seed.
Now, Kailash Fisheries produces 250 lakh spawn, 100 lakh fry and 60 tonnes of fingerlings/ yearlings annually. It also produces seeds of Magur, Chittala and some other indigenous species which have excellent demand locally.
It supplies fingerling and yearlings to the farmers throughout the year. It has also supplied spawns to West Bengal.
Sahu and his brother have developed 100 acres of ponds for seed production and engaged 40 regular employees. Another 100 daily wage labourers also find work in the farm from time to time.
The annual income of the farm from all fisheries activities is about `80 lakh. With a production 6 MTs of fish per acre, Sahu motivates all farmers to come in to the pisciculture fold.
He attends all the State level Krushi fairs and exhibitions. He has been awarded by the Department of Fisheries as the best progressive farmer in State Agriculture fair in 2011.