Paddy-Cum-Fish Culture in Ziro Valley: Arunachal Pradesh

By Dani Kacha

This book presents the management of agriculture and how paddy-cum-fish culture started in the Ziro valley. The brief introduction of geographical and socio-economic profile of Ziro valley is made to see how it has evolved over the years. Analytical study is also made on development of fish farms, area under paddy-cum-fish culture, production of fish and fish nurseries in Ziro valley in particular and Arunachal Pradesh in general. It also highlighted the organic and sustainable management of land, water and forest resources for the livelihood of rural populace since time immemorial. The author identified 14 indigenous strains that are cultivated in the agriculture of Ziro valley with diverse characteristics and varying in yielding rate. Moreover, the cost-benefit analysis of various indigenous economic activities including paddy-cum-fish culture of the farmers are done for ascertaining the economic viability and sustainability of the long practiced paddy-cum-fish cultivation by the Apatanis in Ziro valley.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing India
• Release date: Jul 25, 2017
• ISBN: 9781482889871

Dani Kacha

Author completed up to Secondary School from Hija and P.U. from Hr. Secondary School Ziro. He did B.A. in Economics Honors from St. Anthony College Shillong and M.A. in Economics from North-Eastern Hills University (NEHU) Shillong. He did Ph.D. on “Prospects of Paddy-Cum-Fish Culture for Sustainable Economic Growth of Farmers: A Case Study of Ziro Valley” from North-Eastern Regional Institute of Science and Technology (NERIST), Nirjuli (Itanagar). He presented research papers in more than ten International and National Seminars and published many research articles in various national and international peer review journals. He is teaching Economics in under-graduate level since 2003.

Book preview

Copyright © 2017 Dani Kacha. All rights reserved.

ISBN

978-1-4828-8986-4 (sc)

978-1-4828-8987-1 (e)

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

[e-mail]

07/24/2017

15269.jpg

Contents

Preface

1.   Introduction

2.   Geo-Socio-Economic Profile of Ziro Valley

3.   Agriculture Management of Apatanis

4.   Fish Culture in Organic Paddy Fields of Ziro Valley

5.   Paddy-Cum-Fish Culture Development in Arunachal Pradesh: An Analytical Study

6.   Land use Pattern and Socio-Economic Study of Surveyed Households

7.   Cost-Benefit Analysis of Various Economic Activities in Ziro Valley

8.   Conclusion

Bibliography

List of Tables

2.1 Name of the Festivals and Rituals of Apatanis

3.1 Name of Roman calendar Months vis-a-vis Indigenous

3.2 Indigenous Farming Implements used by the Apatanis

3.3 Traditional Farmer Groups and their Nature of Works

3.4 Classification of Indigenous Rice (oryza sativa) Varieties of Ziro Valley

4.1 Village Wise Cultivation of Strains of Paddy with Fish Nursery and Fertilizer Use in the Agriculture of Ziro Valley

4.2 Local Cultivars and Strains-cum-Fish Culture in Apatani Valley

5.1 Area under Paddy-cum-Fish Culture in Ziro Valley (In Hectare)

5.2 Allotment of Fund for Fish Culture in Paddy Fields of Ziro Valley (In Hectare)

5.3 Fish and Fish Seed Production of Government Farms in Ziro Valley

5.4 Fish Farms/ponds in Lower Subansiri District

5.5 Fish and Fish seed production in Lower Subansiri District

5.6 Area under Pisciculture in Arunachal Pradesh

5.7 Fish and Fish Seed Production in Arunachal Pradesh

6.1 Forest and Bamboo Garden Managements and its Uses

6.2 Land use Classification for Horticulture in Ziro Valley

6.3 The Private Fish Farms and its Production in Ziro Valley

6.4 Village-wise Distribution of Surveyed Households & Household Members

6.5 Educational Qualification of Selected Farmers

6.6 Major Source of Income of Surveyed Households

6.7 Activity-wise Average Annual Income of Surveyed Households (Rs)

6.8 Annual Income of Surveyed Households (Rs)

6.9 Labour Engaged in Paddy Alone and Paddy-cum-Fish Cultivation in a Year

6.10 Number of Persons Engaged in Cultivation in a Year

6.11 Land Holdings of Surveyed Households

6.12 Types of Houses and Ownership Status of Farmers

6.13 Assets of Surveyed Households

6.14 Facilities in Surveyed Households

6.15 Socio-Cultural Practices in Relation with Farming Activities

6.16 Positive Impact of Socio-cultural activities on productivity

6.17 Views of Households Regarding Fish Farming

6.18 Use of Chemical Fertilizers and Pesticides in Fish Rearing Paddy Fields

6.19 Various Economic Activities of the Farmers

6.20 State Government Assistance for Paddy-cum-Fish Cultivation

7.1 Economic Activity-wise Distribution of Surveyed Households

7.2 Revenues and Costs of Agricultural Activity (in Rs.)

7.3 Costs and Returns from Cultivation of Paddy Alone (in Rs.)

7.4 Costs and Returns of Paddy cum Fish Cultivation (in Rs)

7.5 Revenues and Costs of Fishery Activity (in Rs)

7.6 Revenues and Costs of Horticulture Activity (in Rs)

7.7 Revenues and Costs of Animal Husbandry Activity (in Rs)

7.8 Revenues and Costs of Forestry Activity (in Rs)

7.9 Revenues and Costs of Business Activity (in Rs)

7.10 Revenues and Costs of Service (Permanent) Activity (in Rs)

7.11 Revenues and Costs of Daily Wage Activity (in Rs)

List of Figures

5.1 Area Under Paddy-cum-Fish Cultivation in Ziro Valley (In Hectare)

5.2 Allotment of Fund for Fish Culture in Paddy Fields of Ziro Valley (In Hectare)

5.3 Fish Farms/Ponds in Lower Subansiri

5.4 Fish Ponds and Area under Fish Culture in lower Subansiri

5.5 Fish/fish seed Production in Lower Subansiri

5.6 Total Area Developed for Pisciculture (In Hectares)

5.7 Area under paddy-cum-Fish Culture in Arunachal Pradesh (In Hectare)

5.8 Government Fish Farms in Arunachal Pradesh

5.9 Peoples’ Fish Ponds/Farms in Arunachal Pradesh

5.10 Fish Seed Fingerling Size Distribution in Arunachal Pradesh

5.11 Fish Hatcheries in Arunachal Pradesh

5.12 Fish and Fish Seed Production in Arunachal Pradesh

Dedicated

To

My Parents

Mr. Dani Tabiyo & Mrs. Dani Yaming

Preface

This book presents in-depth study of the management of agriculture and fish culture in paddy fields of Ziro valley. It also gives an analytical study of paddy-cum-fish culture development in Arunachal Pradesh as a whole. The method of production is traditional technique and land, water and forest resources are sustainable managed by the indigenous farmer groups. The socio-cultural practices of Apatanis are in one way or other linkages with agriculture of Ziro valley. The Apatanis cultivate local cultivars which have strains of diverse characteristics. These strains are cultivated in most suited wet paddy field soil and amalgamated with fish culture for high yielding of paddy with fish in a session. Moreover, a micro-level study is done along with the cost-benefit analysis of various indigenous economic activities including paddy-cum-fish culture of the farmers for ascertaining the economic viability and sustainability of the long practiced paddy-cum-fish cultivation in the Ziro valley.

Cultivation of paddy and collection of fish from the paddy fields by rural households provides the basic livelihood for the sustenance of human civilization since time immemorial. Thus, the fish culture in rice fields was almost as old as the practice of paddy cultivation itself in Apatani valley. In rainy season wild fish migrate to the paddy fields from rivers through excess water flow and flood. These fish are trapped in the paddy fields and grow there for some months and when water in paddy fields dries up during weeding and before harvesting; farmers collect fish from their paddy fields for family consumption and also earn considerable revenue by selling these fish in the market.

The natural occurrence of fishes in the paddy fields led the Government of Arunachal Pradesh to start paddy-cum-fish culture in Apatani valley in 1960. Thus, rearing of fish along with paddy in the same crop field has become an innovative practice of farming for farmers to earn more income from the same paddy fields for which the initial investment is not required other than the normal paddy field preparation before cropping season starts. This unique farming practice of ‘concurrent growing of rice and fish’ is known as rizi-pisciculture. It is found that the paddy-cum-fish culture is considered as the economically viable and hence sustainable farming practice by the Apatanis in Ziro valley.

In the course of research work I received great help, guidance and co-operation from number of individuals. At the very outset, I would like to express my deep sense of gratitude to Prof. B. D. Nayak, NERIST, Nirjuli for his inspiration on my research work. I do extend my deep sense of thankfulness to Mr. Tage Gambo and other office staffs of the Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Government of Arunachal Pradesh for making the data available. I offer my sincere thanks to the office staff of District Statistics office, Ziro, for their supply of relevant data in my field study and acknowledgement is also accorded to Mr. Mudang Ranka, staff of Department of Fishery, Ziro for providing me valuable suggestions and current data.

I am grateful to the progressive fish farmers of Ziro valley namely Mr. Hage Dollo, Hage Tado, Tage Tatung, Tilling Tadi and Talyang Santh who have given me necessary in-depth insights of various sizes of fish nurseries and related data. I also owe my gratefulness to the farmers of all surveyed households in Ziro valley for giving me sufficient inputs and data during my field survey without which the completion of my work would have not been possible.

I would be failing in my duty if I would not acknowledge my deep sense of gratitude to Dr. Hage Lasa, principal Govt. college Yachuli and my friends Kago Tatung, Khoda Gambo, Dani Tassang (Opo), Pura Obing, Dr. S.N. Jha, Dr. Rajiv Miso, Dani Tagur Ado, Haju Tali and others to whom I have not mentioned their names who have encouraged and supported me during my entire research work. I also thanks to Mr. Koj Mama and Mr. Pura Hinda Tabiyo for helping me in photographs of Ziro valley. I would like to extend my heartiest special thanks to my dear wife Mrs Dani Yaku for her constant moral support and time to time encouragement. She has been instrumental and driving force behind the publication of my research work into a book form.

This study is bound to open up the scope and opportunities for the farmers of other districts of the state in particular and elsewhere in general for experimenting fish culture in their paddy fields. It will also help the future researcher, agriculture, fishery and planning departments in policy formulation for its further development in the country as a whole. There is every possibility that certain errors of omission and commission may have crept in the text. I welcome critical comments and suggestions for further improvement from the reader of this book.

2017               Dani Kacha

image001.jpgimage002.jpg

CHAPTER-1

Introduction

Cultivation of paddy is the primary economic activity in almost all the societies. It provides the basic livelihood for the sustenance of the human civilization. Similarly collection of fish from seas, rivers and other water bodies is also an important traditional economic activity of most of the rural households in all countries. Though these two are separate occupations for large number of households mostly in rural and coastal areas. They primarily depend on production of agricultural crops and collection of fish from various water bodies as a single occupation for earning their livelihood. These households practice both the activities for increasing their household income and better living standard. Many cultivating families not only collect fish from their nearby water bodies but also from their paddy fields. Cultivators harvest the wild fish from their low lying crop fields particularly in rainy season.

In rainy season wild fish migrate to the crop fields from rivers and other water bodies through excess water flow and flood. These fish are trapped in the paddy fields and grow there for some months. After rainy season when water dries up in the paddy fields, farmers use to collect them from their crop fields. Thus, cultivators earn considerable revenue by collecting these fish from their crop fields