The extension worker visits the village for second time, Chief of the village welcomes him and many more farmers come to listen and talk to him including those from neighbouring villages. This time the extension worker stays in the village for a longer duration. He has to select ponds for demonstration of fish culture technology.
The extensionist along with farmers surveys the available ponds of different types, big and small, perennial and seasonal. From these ponds he selects one medium-sized perennial pond (about 0.2 ha) and two seasonal ponds (of about 0.05 ha). He enquires the farmers as to how much fish they have caught from these ponds in the past. No body is able to answer exactly. Some reply that they net only when they have a function and special occasion. So to make sure the fish stocks, he arranges repeated netting of the ponds and dewaters the ponds. The total fish catch from the bigger pond is roughly 70 kg and it comprises some tilapia, common carp, mostly murrels, a few clarias and eels. Similarly, each of the smaller ponds yields about 10 kg of miscellaneous fishes. The farmers had the impression that there is lot more fish in the ponds, but are disappointed to see the low fish yield.
Now the pond margins are cleaned, embankments repaired and on the dry pond bottom he applies ordinary lime at the rate of 200 kg/ha and explains that this improves the pond hygiene and soil condition. Later, the extension worker goes to visit and select similar ponds in the adjoining villages and returns to the village again after one week.
He arranges to get the ponds filled in with water from the adjoining stream after filtering it through a fine mesh screen or cloth bag attached at the inlet pipe of the ponds. He explains to the farmers that this is necessary to check the entry of unwanted fishes, their eggs and other harmful insects into the prepared ponds. One week after the lime application is over the extensionist gets the fresh manure (fresh cow/pig dung) put into the pond at the rate of 10,000 kg/ha or dry chicken droppings at 800 kg/ha according to availability. So this way three ponds (1 big and 2 small) are prepared and he explains to the farmers that after manuring the pond, a rich crop of fish food organisms (plankton) will grow in the pond and that is the time when baby fishes-fry (25 mm – 50 mm) or fingerlings (10 cm – 15 cm) must be stocked.
Now the extensionist goes to the government fish seed production centre and procures fry/fingerlings for stocking in the prepared ponds. He stocks the various species in these ponds in following numbers and ratios :
| Big pond (0.2 ha area) (perennial pond) | Seasonal pond No.1 (0.05 ha) (culture for 6 months) | Seasonal pond No. 2 (0.05 ha) (culture for 6 months) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Species | No./pond | No./ha | % | No./pond | No./ha | % | No./pond | No./ha | % |
| big head | - 210 | 1050 | 35 | 35 | 700 | 35 | 1750 | 35,000 | 33 |
| catla | - 30 | 150 | 5 | 5 | 100 | 5 | 250 | 5,000 | 5 |
| rohu | - 120 | 600 | 20 | 10 | 200 | 10 | 1000 | 20,000 | 20 |
| mrigal | - 90 | 450 | 15 | 20 | 400 | 20 | 750 | 15,000 | 15 |
| common carp | - 90 | 450 | 15 | 25 | 500 | 25 | 750 | 15,000 | 15 |
| grass carp | - 60 | 300 | 10 | 5 | 100 | 5 | 500 | 10,000 | 15 |
| Total- | 600 | 3000 | 100 | 100 | 2000 | 100 | 5000 | 100,000 | 100 |
| Chitala 10 nos. to control weed fishes. | 10 nos. to control weed fishes. | No need to stock chitala | |||||||
| Remarks: used as market fish pond. | used as market fish pond. | used as fingerling rearing pond. | |||||||
When the extensionist finishes stocking of the prepared ponds with small fishes, one of the farmers asks as to why he stocks fishes in the two small ponds in different numbers i.e. in one pond only 100 and in the other 5000 fishes. The extension worker explains them that he plans to grow market fish (500–1000 g size) in one pond so he puts a lesser number (only 100) of small fishes and in the other small pond puts more number as he wants to grow fingerlings (10–15 cm) and juveniles for restocking the bigger pond (0.2 ha) on removing the market fish after nearly six months of culture. He gets a good point to explain that if we put larger number of fish the growth of fishes will be slower because of competition for food and space in the pond, but these fish will remain healthy though small and are easy to transport to other ponds. He also explains that the stocking density of fish in the bigger pond is higher i.e. 3000/ha whereas, it is only 2000/ha in the smaller pond, because the smaller pond can keep enough water for growing fish only for 6 months whereas, the bigger pond will hold enough water throughout the year.
After stocking the ponds with small fish (fry/fingerlings), the extension worker moves on to other villages for similar fish culture demonstration work. The extensionist arrives to the village cooperative for a brief half after 2 weeks to check the growth of stocked fishes in the pond. The small fishes are netted by the farmers by a close-mesh net and they are excited to find the small fishes showing very good growth. The interest of the farmers grows deeper and they promise to take good care of the young fishes both in the big pond and in the small seasonal ponds. Before leaving the village next morning, the extensionist warns the farmers not to add too much manure or give too much feed out of love for the young fishes. This is often a common mistake, and in lots of cases the pond water is over-fertilized or young fishes are overfed, as a result of this the water gets polluted and the healthy fishes die due to oxygen depletion.
With these words of encouragement and caution, the extensionist promises to return to the village again after three months. Now keenness on the part of the villagers is clearly perceptible, they try to follow the instructions on fish culture and also endeavour to put in their best of effort to demonstrate to the extensionist how well they have been doing their job.
This positive attitude of the villagers is considered as the first great success of the extension worker.
Now three months have passed and the extensionist returns back to the village cooperative. The villagers surround him and start reporting that when they feed the fishes in the pond, they see bigger healthy fishes coming for food like small children. The word “children” makes the extension worker feel very happy as he can judge their love for the fishes. After taking some rest, the extensionist describes the experiences and attitudes of other village cooperatives to the farmers and plans to net the ponds again. This time a drag net of bigger mesh (2/4 inch mesh) is used and the baby fishes have grown quite big, some fishes even 300–400 grams in size, particularly, in the small seasonal pond where low stocking density was used. The farmers whisper among themselves that they are sure to get good number of big fishes of 500–1000 grams in size within another 3 months' time (total 6 months culture period) and they can take out market fish for their own consumption and also the excess for sale to earn cash to meet their other needs.
In all the three ponds the growth and survival of the fishes are very encouraging as the farmers had taken a good care and the extensionist congratulates all of them and particularly the Chief of the village for their united hard work to grow enough of fish protein for themselves.
The extensionist now feels more confident and returns after another 3 months to harvest fully the small seasonal ponds, and also the big pond to take out the marketable fishes and to replace the number of harvested fishes by advanced fingerlings/juveniles from one of the seasonal ponds. The villagers quite appreciate this plan for fish culture and prepare for netting the three ponds.
To the joy of the villagers one of the small seasonal ponds yields 60 kg of marketable fish (600–1000 g size), the other small pond yields over 4500 juveniles (85% survival) of various species. From the big pond they partially harvest 250 kg of market fish and replace the number removed by juveniles from the small pond. The village cooperative already makes a good profit within 6 months and works seriously to earn more through fish culture during the following period.
Now the extensionist feels to satisfied and well rewarded for his efforts and plans to bid good-bye to the farmers. The village Chief came to know of it and he immediately approaches the extensionist with the request that before leaving the village finally, the farmers want a small training course to be arranged by the extensionist for them. The village Chief tells that the farmers are convinced of the success of the demonstration programme and are very keen to learn about some scientific aspects of the technology through very simple talks and practical training in order to make them feel more self-reliant. This demand by the farmers for a short training is quite reasonable and encouraging and the extensionist plans a 2-week programe for the farmers belonging to the cooperative and the nearby villages.
Since the extensionist has a heavy work load, it is possible to arrange such a programme after another six months only. This is also the time to harvest most of the market fish and prepare the seasonal ponds for fish culture. Also, it is possible to inform the neighbouring villages and cooperatives to participate at the 2 week practical training programme.
Thus the II visit of the extensionist ends successfully, and the III visit is planned.
