If everything goes as planned, in a few years, Sarpang will no longer have to import fish. The district’s second mega commercial fishery is optimistic of a better prospect although the first harvest was a failure due to seepage in the ponds. A group of youth started the fish farm in Umling Gewog to reduce import dependency and meet the district’s demand.
A group of four youths started the farm in 2021 to produce about 40 metric tons of fish in a year. But the group could only produce less than one metric ton during the first harvest, last year.
They said the water seepage in the ponds hampered the production.
“We are not benefitting. We bought fingerlings worth around Nu 300,000 last year. And we could harvest only over a hundred kilograms,” said Tshering Dema, one of the group members.
But she added that they will soon carry out maintenance of the ponds. This is expected to increase production in the next harvest which is after two to three months.
The group targets to meet the demand within the district.
“We could not supply it in the district as we had a difficult time meeting the demand within the gewog itself,” added Tshering Dema.
The National Research and Development Center for Aquaculture in Gelephu provided the fund worth Nu 1.4 M to establish the farm.
Karma Wangdi, Sarpang
Edited by Tshering Zam
