June 15, 2007

Indian farmers urged to diversify into fish farming

India's farmers should not depend wholly on crop production but should look to aquaculture to increase their incomes as well, a senior official at an Indian agricultural university said.

R.N. Srinivas Gowda, Vice-Chancellor of Karnataka Veterinary, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Sciences University said farmers should learn to diversify the scope of their activities to earn more income.

Instead of diversifying their crops as some have done, moving from grain crops to sugarcane, farmers should look at integrated farming practices, whereby cultivation of crops is taken up along with animal husbandry and fisheries practices.

Moreover, fish production needed only a quarter of the water required for sugarcane cultivation and unlike sugarcane, fish prices have not undergone huge price swings in recent years. The universal growing demand for fish also makes it an ideal sector to diversify into.