Jagatsinghpur: Before lockdown, he was known as a software engineer. Now he is a fish farmer.
Swapnesh Mohanty, aged 32, is a resident of Anandpur village under Taradapada panchayat in Jagatsinghpur block. Before lockdown, he worked as a software engineer with a Bangalore based software company. The countrywide coronavirus-induced lockdown, however, changed the course of his life.
“The company where I worked was closed down after lockdown and I was left with no option but return home. Seeing my time going by unproductive, I wished to do something which can suitably be done during lockdown. I started searching for options on the internet. Particularly I was searching for some farming options with modern technology,” Mohanty says.
Swapnesh’s quest for tech-based farming finally ended with Biofloc fish farming. “I got two polythene wells measuring 1.3 metre high with a diameter of four metres constructed in our own backyard April 28. In the first lot, I had bought 2,000 Rupchanda fingerlings from Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture (CIFA) at Kausalyaganga, Bhubaneswar,” he adds.
Swapnesh says the fingerlings weighing four to five gram each have reached 80 to 100 gram already. He has been taking care of the fish himself.
“Starting from feeding them to maintaining water level and to treating the water with medicines, I am doing everything. I hope, in the next three to four months, they will grow up to the size of 500 to 600 grams,” he observes.
Initially, my family was against my decision. But now they have understood the project and helping me in it. A total of Rs1.1lakh has gone into the project. If everything goes well, I will get five quintals of fish and each well will fetch me a profit of Rs 30,000 to 40,000.
Even if he is required to return to Bangalore, his father will carry it forward, he says.
When contacted, district fisheries officer Subrat Das said young people should evince interest in Biofloc fish farming as it requires less land and labour as compared to traditional fish farming.
“Meanwhile, eight to ten such projects have so far been set up in the district. These young entrepreneurs will be encouraged to try jalang, catfish and climbing fish. If a four-metre-radius well is filled with 10,000 litres of water, it will produce five quintals of fish in just five to six months time. So more and more youths should come forward to take up Biofloc fish farming,” Das said while adding that, “As per a government scheme launched in July, youths belonging to general caste are also entitled to get a rebate on loans if they take up fish farming.”
PNN