Where do you think most of the fish you eat comes from? The ocean? Wrong.
Rivers and lakes? Wrong again.
It’s fish farms like Y Nagendranath’s in Konduru, a village in the Krishna district of coastal Andhra Pradesh.
Located 90 km east of Vijayawada, Konduru is near Pothumarru, where commercial aquaculture kicked off in the state in 1980. Inspired, Nagendranath started off two years later, relying on a nearby lake for fish seeds. At the time, the area was filled with paddy fields. “There was flooding every alternate year and the fields would be inundated,” he says, sitting in his house on a warm afternoon.
Now there is hardly any paddy to be seen.
Instead, in and around Konduru, there are fish ponds of varying sizes on both sides of the road, with lines of palm trees dividing them.
A whole industry has emerged around aquaculture, as can be seen in Akividu in West Godavari district, not far from Konduru. The busiest road there is lined with shops selling a range of aquaculture-related products like probiotic pellets and oxygen generators.
The Krishna, West Godavari, and East Godavari districts are the hub of aquaculture in Andhra Pradesh, which accounts for a fourth of India’s fish production. West Bengal and Gujarat account for 15% and 7%, respectively.
When Nagendranath ventured into fish farming in 1982, aquaculture contributed less than a fifth of India’s fish production. But it grew to a third in 1996, and 20 years later, it was more than half. According to projections by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), aquaculture will account for nearly two-thirds of India’s fish production by 2030.
Nagendranath now has 31 acres under aquaculture. He grows rohu and catla on 22 acres and shrimp on 9 acres. Rohu, catla, and mrigal, which are called Indian major carps, make up nearly 90% of India’s freshwater aquaculture, according to one estimate. Pangasius, a kind of catfish, tilapia, and prawns are other species in freshwater farming. Shrimp, especially whiteleg shrimp, is a popular species in brackish-water aquaculture, which accounts for 5% of aquaculture in the country.
“There is a minimum-income guarantee in aquaculture,” says Nagendranath. A farmer can earn around INR1 lakh per acre annually, growing two batches of carps, according to B Seshagiri, chief scientist at the Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture in Vijayawada.
Aquaculture became so popular in Andhra that there were restrictions on converting paddy fields into fish ponds in the 2000s. This curb was later eased. Following Andhra Pradesh’s success, several other states like West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Odisha are also promoting it as an alternative to crops. Ram Shankar Naik, Andhra Pradesh’s commissioner for fisheries, did not respond to ET Prime’s calls and messages. In the 1950s, marine fish accounted for more than 70% of India’s fish production, but by 2016-17 its share had more than halved. The rise in the contribution of inland farming was thanks to aquaculture (and, as ET Prime's earlier investigation showed, the frightening state of our oceans). But there are limitations to growth in aquaculture as it is practised now. So, the National Fisheries Development Board, set up in 2006, is now pushing culture of fish in cages and pens in reservoirs and lakes.
Marine products are India’s single-largest export, amounting to over INR45,000 crore in 2017-18, with shrimp alone fetching two-thirds of that.
“Freshwater fish is mostly consumed in India because they don’t fetch good prices overseas,” says Ramachandra Raju, president, Society of Indian Fisheries and Aquaculture. But shrimp culture is a lot riskier than carp culture and could cost twice as much. However, it commands INR350-INR400 per kg at the farm gate, three-four times what farmers get for catla and rohu. How Andhra Pradesh got India in its net
While in the 1980s, fish from Andhra Pradesh was sent mostly to West Bengal, now it is eaten across the country.
“Andhra fish is available everywhere except the Srinagar valley,” says Raju.
In West Bengal, rohu and catla of less than 2kg are sourced from within the state, but fish larger than that come from Andhra, says Abhirup Basak, co-founder and chief executive of Kolkata-based online grocery and fresh fish and meat seller DelyBazar.com.
A third of DelyBazar’s revenues comes from fish, and 70%-75% of its sales are of freshwater varieties.
India’s per-capita fish consumption in 2016 was just 6.6 kg, compared with the global average of over 20.4 kg, as per data from FAO. “If you have fish once a month, then you can’t tell the difference between natural and farmed fish, but you can’t cheat the Bengalis, they have fish five times a week,” says Basak. DelyBazar delivers around 8,000 kg of fish to Kolkata every month.
In contrast, freshwater varieties account for less than 2% of sales at Pescafresh, a fish-delivery service in Mumbai, which has a variety of marine fishes like mackerel, Bombay duck, anchovy, pomfret, and seer fish to choose from.
“Fish from natural sources is always better, but if you want to have a consistent supply of freshwater fish, then aquaculture is the way forward,” says Sangram Sawant, founder and CEO of Pescafresh.
Both DelyBazar and Pescafresh source their freshwater fish from Andhra Pradesh. While Pescafresh relies on third-party certifications and microbiological tests for its supplies. Basak, too, says it is essential to know the source for the fish.
The shadow of excessive chemical use
There are parallels between poultry and aquaculture, both in their rapid growth and concerns over the inputs they use.
The poultry industry has come under attack the world over for its use of antibiotics. So has aquaculture, which has come under the scanner for excessive use of antibiotics and chemicals such as formalin and hydrogen peroxide.
Earlier this year, the discovery of fish laced with formalin across the country caused a huge scare. Several states like Kerala, Goa, Manipur, Assam, and Meghalaya briefly banned import of fish from other states.
Formalin, which has formaldehyde and methyl alcohol, is used to preserve fish to prolong its shelf-life, and there have been suggestions of links between formaldehyde and some types of cancer.
However, Seshagiri says the use of chemicals has reduced with the amount spent on them falling from INR10,000 per acre per crop in 2000 to INR4,000. As far as antibiotics are concerned, Mathew Joseph, co-founder of another meat and fish delivery company FreshtoHome.com, says they are used in whiteleg shrimp culture, but “farmers can’t afford antibiotics for rohu and catla at the prices they get”.India has over 3,000 species of fish, two-thirds of which are marine species, a third are freshwater varieties and over 100 are from brackish water. In the past few years, in addition to whiteleg shrimp from brackish water, freshwater species like pangasius and tilapia have become popular in aquaculture.
Seshagiri believes farming Indian major carps is stable and sustainable. “But farmers are being confused by promotion of exotic species like roopchand (Chinese pomfret) and tilapia by the government or private entities,” he says, adding that diversification into any new species in commercial aquaculture is risky.
The growth of aquaculture across the country over the past couple of decades is also a measure of its reliability as a livelihood. Fish production contributes around 1% to India’s GDP and over 5% to the agricultural GDP.
But there is concern that the untrammelled growth could result in quality issues and health scares. “We don’t have that kind of infrastructure to monitor [aquaculture],” says Sawant.
With the share of fish exports projected to rise from 10% in 2016 to nearly 13% in 2030, quality standards cannot be ignored. Rather, India needs to up its game in processing and value addition to capture a bigger chunk of the global export market.
Rivers and lakes? Wrong again.
It’s fish farms like Y Nagendranath’s in Konduru, a village in the Krishna district of coastal Andhra Pradesh.
Located 90 km east of Vijayawada, Konduru is near Pothumarru, where commercial aquaculture kicked off in the state in 1980. Inspired, Nagendranath started off two years later, relying on a nearby lake for fish seeds. At the time, the area was filled with paddy fields. “There was flooding every alternate year and the fields would be inundated,” he says, sitting in his house on a warm afternoon.
Now there is hardly any paddy to be seen.
Instead, in and around Konduru, there are fish ponds of varying sizes on both sides of the road, with lines of palm trees dividing them.
A whole industry has emerged around aquaculture, as can be seen in Akividu in West Godavari district, not far from Konduru. The busiest road there is lined with shops selling a range of aquaculture-related products like probiotic pellets and oxygen generators.
The Krishna, West Godavari, and East Godavari districts are the hub of aquaculture in Andhra Pradesh, which accounts for a fourth of India’s fish production. West Bengal and Gujarat account for 15% and 7%, respectively.
When Nagendranath ventured into fish farming in 1982, aquaculture contributed less than a fifth of India’s fish production. But it grew to a third in 1996, and 20 years later, it was more than half. According to projections by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), aquaculture will account for nearly two-thirds of India’s fish production by 2030.
Nagendranath now has 31 acres under aquaculture. He grows rohu and catla on 22 acres and shrimp on 9 acres. Rohu, catla, and mrigal, which are called Indian major carps, make up nearly 90% of India’s freshwater aquaculture, according to one estimate. Pangasius, a kind of catfish, tilapia, and prawns are other species in freshwater farming. Shrimp, especially whiteleg shrimp, is a popular species in brackish-water aquaculture, which accounts for 5% of aquaculture in the country.
“There is a minimum-income guarantee in aquaculture,” says Nagendranath. A farmer can earn around INR1 lakh per acre annually, growing two batches of carps, according to B Seshagiri, chief scientist at the Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture in Vijayawada.
Aquaculture became so popular in Andhra that there were restrictions on converting paddy fields into fish ponds in the 2000s. This curb was later eased. Following Andhra Pradesh’s success, several other states like West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Odisha are also promoting it as an alternative to crops. Ram Shankar Naik, Andhra Pradesh’s commissioner for fisheries, did not respond to ET Prime’s calls and messages. In the 1950s, marine fish accounted for more than 70% of India’s fish production, but by 2016-17 its share had more than halved. The rise in the contribution of inland farming was thanks to aquaculture (and, as ET Prime's earlier investigation showed, the frightening state of our oceans). But there are limitations to growth in aquaculture as it is practised now. So, the National Fisheries Development Board, set up in 2006, is now pushing culture of fish in cages and pens in reservoirs and lakes.
Marine products are India’s single-largest export, amounting to over INR45,000 crore in 2017-18, with shrimp alone fetching two-thirds of that.
“Freshwater fish is mostly consumed in India because they don’t fetch good prices overseas,” says Ramachandra Raju, president, Society of Indian Fisheries and Aquaculture. But shrimp culture is a lot riskier than carp culture and could cost twice as much. However, it commands INR350-INR400 per kg at the farm gate, three-four times what farmers get for catla and rohu. How Andhra Pradesh got India in its net
While in the 1980s, fish from Andhra Pradesh was sent mostly to West Bengal, now it is eaten across the country.
“Andhra fish is available everywhere except the Srinagar valley,” says Raju.
In West Bengal, rohu and catla of less than 2kg are sourced from within the state, but fish larger than that come from Andhra, says Abhirup Basak, co-founder and chief executive of Kolkata-based online grocery and fresh fish and meat seller DelyBazar.com.
A third of DelyBazar’s revenues comes from fish, and 70%-75% of its sales are of freshwater varieties.
India’s per-capita fish consumption in 2016 was just 6.6 kg, compared with the global average of over 20.4 kg, as per data from FAO. “If you have fish once a month, then you can’t tell the difference between natural and farmed fish, but you can’t cheat the Bengalis, they have fish five times a week,” says Basak. DelyBazar delivers around 8,000 kg of fish to Kolkata every month.
In contrast, freshwater varieties account for less than 2% of sales at Pescafresh, a fish-delivery service in Mumbai, which has a variety of marine fishes like mackerel, Bombay duck, anchovy, pomfret, and seer fish to choose from.
“Fish from natural sources is always better, but if you want to have a consistent supply of freshwater fish, then aquaculture is the way forward,” says Sangram Sawant, founder and CEO of Pescafresh.
Both DelyBazar and Pescafresh source their freshwater fish from Andhra Pradesh. While Pescafresh relies on third-party certifications and microbiological tests for its supplies. Basak, too, says it is essential to know the source for the fish.
The shadow of excessive chemical use
There are parallels between poultry and aquaculture, both in their rapid growth and concerns over the inputs they use.
The poultry industry has come under attack the world over for its use of antibiotics. So has aquaculture, which has come under the scanner for excessive use of antibiotics and chemicals such as formalin and hydrogen peroxide.
Earlier this year, the discovery of fish laced with formalin across the country caused a huge scare. Several states like Kerala, Goa, Manipur, Assam, and Meghalaya briefly banned import of fish from other states.
Formalin, which has formaldehyde and methyl alcohol, is used to preserve fish to prolong its shelf-life, and there have been suggestions of links between formaldehyde and some types of cancer.
However, Seshagiri says the use of chemicals has reduced with the amount spent on them falling from INR10,000 per acre per crop in 2000 to INR4,000. As far as antibiotics are concerned, Mathew Joseph, co-founder of another meat and fish delivery company FreshtoHome.com, says they are used in whiteleg shrimp culture, but “farmers can’t afford antibiotics for rohu and catla at the prices they get”.India has over 3,000 species of fish, two-thirds of which are marine species, a third are freshwater varieties and over 100 are from brackish water. In the past few years, in addition to whiteleg shrimp from brackish water, freshwater species like pangasius and tilapia have become popular in aquaculture.
Seshagiri believes farming Indian major carps is stable and sustainable. “But farmers are being confused by promotion of exotic species like roopchand (Chinese pomfret) and tilapia by the government or private entities,” he says, adding that diversification into any new species in commercial aquaculture is risky.
The growth of aquaculture across the country over the past couple of decades is also a measure of its reliability as a livelihood. Fish production contributes around 1% to India’s GDP and over 5% to the agricultural GDP.
But there is concern that the untrammelled growth could result in quality issues and health scares. “We don’t have that kind of infrastructure to monitor [aquaculture],” says Sawant.
With the share of fish exports projected to rise from 10% in 2016 to nearly 13% in 2030, quality standards cannot be ignored. Rather, India needs to up its game in processing and value addition to capture a bigger chunk of the global export market.
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