DFID Suchana, WorldFish Quarterly Process Monitoring Report on Aquaculture for Apr to Jun 2020

Abstract

Based on online MIS database of Susana, process monitoring data were collected from 92 aquaculture supported beneficiary households (BHHs) during the reporting quarter since July to September 2020. Out of 92 BHHs, 62 were demonstration pond (Demo-Pond) BHHs, 28 were Homestead Food Production pond (HFP-Ponds) BHHs and only 2 were Income Generating Activity pond (IGA-Pond) BHHs. Considering the very smaller sample size, findings from IGA-Pond BHHs aren’t presented in the current report. The average pond sizes were 11.9 decimals and 9.4 decimals for Demo-Pond and HFP-Pond respectively. The pond water areas were on an average 9.8 decimals and 7.2 decimals for Demo-Pond and HFP-Pond respectively. The pond sizes per respondent household were 11.1 decimals and 7.0 decimals for Demo-Pond and HFP-Pond respectively as there were both the single ownership ponds and joint ownership ponds. More proportion of Demo-Ponds (85%) had single ownership compare to the HFP-Ponds (64%). Almost ninety (89%) percent of Demo-pond and HFP-pond owners harvested fish from their ponds within last 30 days; and those were average 8.5 kilogram per Demo-Pond household and 6.8 kilograms per HFP-Pond. Larger proportions of harvested fish were used for family consumption for both the Demo-Ponds (82%) and HFP-Ponds (95%). Only 0.4 kg (4%) per Demo-Ponds household and 0.3 kg (4%) per HFP-Pond household distributed fish to the relatives and neighbors, and the remaining 1.1 kg (13%) per Demo-Pond household and 0.1 kg (1%) per HFP-Pond household sold to the market or nearby households. Besides the harvest and uses of fish, both the Demo-pond and HFP-Pond households faced some challenges as well. Almost two-fifth (38%) unavailability of quality fingerlings (including expected size and price) and lack of money or capital for culturing fish; and 19% of respondents mentioned about the turbid water during flood and rainy season. Few other responses were lack of technical knowledge and experience on fish culture (8%), lack of sunlight at the pond water/ shaded pond (3%), joint ownership of the ponds (3%), lack of water during dry season (1%), and low level water in the homestead ponds (1%). One-fifth (19%) of the respondents didn’t mention any challenges. Based on the current situation, Susana staff members shared some suggestions to improve their aquaculture. The major suggestions were found to apply fish feed (66%), to stock fingerling in the pond (57%), to harvest fish (tilapia and mole) from the pond regular basis (53%), to apply fertilizers for better growth of fish (42%), to apply lime to improve water quality (41%), to remove aquatic weeds from the pond (38%), to check the growth of fish using net (28%), to prune the branches of large trees from pond side for better sunlight (27%), to sell additional harvest (26%), to keep duckweeds using ring or box (16%), and few others (4%).