Una siblings give up jobs to take up fish rearing

Rajesh Sharma
Una, July 29

Siblings Anil Rana and Akhil Rana quit their well-paid jobs in the corporate sector in 2013 and took to fish rearing in their native Panjawar village, a part of Haroli subdivision. They started cultivating fish on two hectares of pond and doubled it to four hectares two years ago.

Anil says that they wanted to work and grow on their own and so they came back to their ancestral village. They have taken technical and financial assistance under the Union Government-funded National Mission for Protein Supplement Scheme and made two fish ponds on their property, each measuring one hectare.

Akhil says that they introduced 10,000 fingerlings in one pond and in one year, they harvested 10 metric tonnes of fish from each pond, giving them adequate profit and motivation to expand their venture. In 2018, they took advantage of the benefits under the Blue Revolution Scheme and constructed two more ponds of one hectare each.

The brothers say that they rear rohu, katla, mrigul, common carp and grass carp species, most of which reach up to 5 kg in weight. They have formed an organisation of about 150 fish farmers and registered it as the first Farmer Produce Organisation of the state.

Anil and Akhil were given the Best Inland Fish Farmer of India award in 2019 by the National Fisheries Development Board, Hyderabad. The brothers have ambitious expansion plans to set up a bioflock fish farm, a processing unit and a sales outlet under the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Scheme. “We have applied for financial assistance under the scheme and are hopeful of getting it,” says Akhil.