Sheo Nandan Yadav of village Semra a beneficiary of dova on his raiyyati land built with fund from Krishi Vibhag at a cost of 14,000 rupees only has earned a net profit of Rs5,000 from the sale proceed of fish in one season that he reared in his Dova.
Yadav said, “I reared fish in my dova. There was around 20 to 25 Kilos of them. I sold it and earned around Rs5,000 when my expenditure on fish farming was around Rs1,300 only. I am waiting for rains to come and fill my dova. I will go for fish farming again. It is profitable.”
Kishore Kumar Pandey a civil society activist said, “There are many beneficiaries of dovas who want to earn by selling fish. But the problem is that dovas have now little water in them. Fish farming will be difficult.”
Pandey said, “If location of dova is on a suitable place where there is the catchment area and downstream then retention of water in dova is of a longer period.” Referring to Yadav’s problem Pandey said, “This is true of hundreds of other dovas here where water is too low and most unfit for fish rearing.”
Jai Ram is a dalit beneficiary of dova at village Dhuma. Jai Ram said ‘ I have a dova on my raiyyati land and this year I have sold 50 Kgs of fish earning a net profit of Rs8,000. Now my dova is left with little water. I will wait for rains to fill it again’.
Jai Ram faced a peculiar problem. He said, “My dova is far from my house. Miscreants stole my fish otherwise my profit by way of sale proceed of fish would have been far more.”
Jai Ram further said, “I tried hard to protect my fish from stealing. I used to sleep at night on the bank of dova but despite this fish thieves made me miserable by way of stealing my fish there.” Kishore Kumar Pandey said this problem of fish theft is acute in remote areas where miscreants steal fish and Jai Ram is just an example of this unfair business.
Jai Ram reared bongri fish and was happy that its sale was no problem.
Sohrab Khan is another dova beneficiar having a 60x60 size dova built with MGNREG fund worth one lakh twenty thousand of rupees and on December 28 Khan sold 4 quintals of fish and earned a net profit of Rs40,000.
Khan said, “I had spent 4,000 rupees for fish farming by way of putting jeeras ( fish fingerling). My profit is ten fold high. I will do this again’. Khan sold fish like rohu, ketla, mirgal and bongri. Reminded that dovas are left with little water Khan said ‘ My dova too has little water now but I will replenish it with water from my deep boring and pump set. I will raise its level to 15 feet and then I will go for fish farming’.
DDC Palamu Sushant Gaurav said, “Fish in dovas mean the beneficiaries will get cash for it. It is too good news for all of us.”