Promoting Ornamental Fisheries In India By Dr. Abhilaksh Likhi

Ornamental fisheries have been identified as one of focus areas for livelihood support and entrepreneurship amongst fish farmers of the country. This is in alignment with the Viksit Bharat@ 2047 vision of a fisheries sector that is ecologically healthy, economically viable and socially inclusive. Infact, the flagship programme Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) provides requisite support for development of various ornamental fisheries activities. These include establishing backyard rearing units, promoting breeding technologies and marketing of value-added enterprises such as aquarium outlets with related accessories. The aim is to bolster both domestic aquarium trade and export of ornamental fishes.

The North-Eastern States and the Western Ghats are ornamental fish hotspots with over 1000 freshwater and marine species (wild caught as well as cultured)! This abundance of biodiversity coupled with PMMSY’s robust ecosystem of technology driven grassroots entrepreneurship (in cooperation, of course, with State and union territory governments) has made the difference! During the last ten years, the domestic aquarium trade has achieved the mark of Rs.3000 crore annually with 1.25% of urban households keeping an aquarium. In addition, India’s ornamental fish exports (essentially through wild catch) have grown by 164% to over Rs.40 crore.

Two success stories, amongst many others, from remote parts of the country are a testimony to the above. Mr. Yarangjang Imchen of Nagaland leads a startup since 2021 that runs 150 ornamental fish rearing tanks using the Recirculatory Aquaculture System (RAS) to produce varieties such as guppies, zebra fish, mollies, barbs, goldfish etc. In addition to fish breeding, the start-up also offers services like aqua scaping, filtration systems, and aquarium tank assembly. Averaging sales of 1,500 fish per month, the startup has achieved a turnover of Rs.6.5 lakhs. On the other hand, Mr. C. Arjun of Andaman & Nicobar Islands, with support from NABARD, has set up an aquarium shop since 2021 that also ensures quarantine, disease and water preparation protocols. With these good management practices, he has achieved a turnover of Rs. 35 lakhs.

Experts contend that such entrepreneurial spirit can be strengthened further with two targeted operational interventions under PMMSY. First, cultured ornamental fish production in India in backyard units is increasingly providing livelihood support to marginal fish farmer families. Such units need to be connected to local, national, and international markets. Second, skill orientation of ornamental fish producers and aquarium traders needs to be enhanced in high potential states such as Assam, Tamil Naidu, Kerela, Karnataka, West Bengal and Maharashtra.

Short, medium, and long-term solutions to these issues are a part of the ten-year strategic action plan that has been put in place by Government of India. It has four targets: to expand the ornamental fish domestic market value to over Rs.10,000 crores; to promote 40,000 aquarium shops across the urban, semi urban, rural countryside; train 100% fish farmers, entrepreneurs/allied stakeholders; and attain 10% share in the global market for ornamental fish exports.

In fact, to achieve economies of scale, aggregation of small and marginal ornamental fish farmers through fish farmers producer organizations has already taken roots. Sahyadari Aquarium Fish Producer Company in Ernakulam District of Kerela, for example, connects fish farmers directly with aquarium shop owners and has a transparent auctioning system. As a result of its value chain approach, the company has achieved an annual turnover of Rs.80 lakhs and is exploring possibilities of tapping the export market as well! Many such ornamental fish producer companies are now also being onboarded to the e-marketplace, Open Network of Digital Commerce (ONDC).

At the same time, it is important to address gaps in the pan- India knowledge sharing modalities about ornamental fisheries. Government of India’s “Rangeen Machhli App” provides multilingual access to users across the country in eight Indian languages. It further provides comprehensive details on rearing and breeding good practices to hobbyists as well as fish farmers. It also enables users to locate nearby aquarium shops through a dynamic directory updated by shop owners connecting them to reliable sources for ornamental fish and aquarium related products. In addition, it includes educational modules for both newcomers and professionals in the ornamental fish industry.

To achieve the ornamental fish export target set in our ten-year strategic plan, a few aspects are critical. First, our R&D efforts, under the aegis of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), must focus more on the genetic improvement of our indigenous ornamental species through captive breeding. Second, traceability and green certification systems by digital means have to be strengthened for these species to enable disease free exports. Third, branding for indigenous ornamental varieties in e-market places including international expos must be aggressively facilitated by the Marine Export Promotion Agency (MPEDA). In fact, a cluster approach to converge efforts on above issues has been made a reality with the notification of “Madurai Ornamental Fish Production and Processing Cluster.” Herein, learnings through global experience from Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Japan are being coupled with innovative package of practices by successful ornamental fish farmers from India to train others in the community.

(The writer is Secretary, Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying, Government of India. Views expressed are personal)