Until a decade and a half ago, mola fish (Amblypharyngodon mola), a small indigenous species (SIS), was an integral part of Odia cuisine. However, with changing climatic conditions, pollution, excessive use of pesticides and fertilisers being washed away into water bodies, the fish variety slowly disappeared. In recent years, however, village-level programmes with women at the forefront, are working to revive the fish, known as mahurali (in Odia) or chunna maacha (in local parlance), while also adding a source of income.
In September 2018, the Fish and Animal Resource Development (FARD) Department of Odisha launched a programme to assist Women Self Help Groups (WSHGs) with scientific fish farming in gram panchayat tanks. The programme focused on promoting nutrition-sensitive pond polyculture through farming the micronutrient-rich mola alongside Indian major carps.
In Badasahi, a village in the Marapur gram panchayat in Mayurbhanj, a 12-member WSHG took up nutrition-sensitive pond polyculture through farming micronutrient-rich mola in 2019.
“Our SHG had leased the village pond for fishing eight years ago. In 2019, we introduced mahurali fish in the pond. Fresh water fishing for us has been very profitable. Earlier we were confined to just selling fish but now we manage the pond, maintain it, feed the fish, monitor their growth and then harvest and sell them,” said Ashtami Killar, one of the SHG members, from Badasahi.
The group had taken the five-acre village pond on lease, eight years ago. In 2019 they renewed the five-year lease contract and introduced the SIS fish variety. Through this programme each woman has added an additional Rs. 10,000 to her annual household income.
The Odisha Fisheries Policy, 2015, which intended to increase fish production across the state, promoted fishing in unused and underused gram panchayat (GP) tanks across the state. Through a multi-institutional strategy and collaboration between the Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water Department of Odisha, the Women and Child Development and Mission Shakti Department, FARD, and the Self Help Groups were roped in to breed fish in these tanks. In line with this, the GP tanks were leased out to the WSHGs for five years in all 30 districts of the state in 2018.