Farmers strike it rich by fowl means

‘‘For six months a year, acres of land in the the rain-dependent rice belts of Jharkhand, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh remain barren. That is when people like us migrate to Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai for a living,’’ say Nanki Oran and Sukri Devi of Thakurgaon.

Till 1999, they, too, followed the herd. Then, under Singh’s tutelage, they pooled their resources—labour and five-odd acres of land—and dug a hectare-wide pond. ‘‘We used the pond water to reap three harvests of paddy, pulse/wheat and vegetables,’’ says Oran.

That was when Singh stepped into the picture. ‘‘Once I had verified that the pond retained water through the year, we gave them Khaki Campbell ducklings and Common Carp to breed,’’ says Singh.

A single perennial pond is the prime requisite for eligibility. The fish, including the local rohu and katla, and ducks are reared for both meat and eggs, which are sold in the markets of Hazaribagh and Ranchi as well as Kolkata.

‘‘We have benefited by following his advice,’’ smile Nanki and Devi, who together make a profit of Rs 20,000-25,000 each year. Ahead of them is Dhunnu Oroan, a resident of Okhargarha, who rears ducks, fish and pigs. He sports a wristwatch, listens to the AIR and BBC news on his transistor and sends his sons to a private English medium school.

‘‘Animal husbandry is cost-effective because I don’t need to buy feed for the animals,’’ points out Oraon. ‘‘Kitchen waste does for the pigs. The fish relish pig and duck excreta.’’

Interestingly, a similar project involving Khaki Campbell ducks, Common Carp, and British Tamworth pigs was first recommended by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) way back in the 1990s.

‘‘But it never took off among tribals. So I started an integrated management project with local fish (rohu, katla, Common Carp), ducks (Khaki Campbells) and pigs (a crossbreed of Tamworth and a desi variety called T&D) with three main objectives of study: the growth of pigs and ducks on easily available farm waste, the carrying capacity of pigs and ducks for seasonal and non-seasonal ponds and the economics of fish-cum-pig-cum-duck farming,’’ says Singh.

In the first leg, Singh selected 16 farmers—six each in Jharkhand and four in Chhattisgarh—and presented them Khaki Campbells ducklings, T&D piglets and the chosen varieties of fish. They were urged to grow paddy near the ponds, and use the excreta of the pigs and ducks as manure.

The success of this integrated animal husbandry initiative is especially significant in view of the state government’s decision to spend Rs 48 crore on digging 9,000 ponds in drought-hit areas in 2004-05.

While the cost of each hectare-wide pond estimated at Rs 75,000, beneficiaries could range from individual farmers to cooperatives.