In accordance with a request from the Government of Nepal for assistance in fisheries and fish culture development, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations under the United Nations Development Programme (Technical Assistance Sector) appointed Dr. Elek Woynarovich, Inland Fishery Biologist, as inland fisheries adviser to the Government. Dr. Woynarovich served in Nepal from 14 March 1968 to 31 December 1973. He succeeded K.K. Zwilling, Inland Fish Culturish, who advised on the fish culture development in Nepal between July 1963 and April 1968.
Dr. Woynarovich's terms of reference were to advise and assist the Government in the development of fisheries in the country and particularly in: planning and execution of developmental projects; planning and supervision of construction and operation of fish farms; planning and implementation of extension services in fish culture; planning and supervision of projects for increasing fish production in lakes and rivers; and training of technical personnel required for the implementation of inland fisheries development programmes.
The expert's one-year assignment was extended the first time to 31 December 1969, the second time to 31 December 1970, the third time to 31 December 1972 and the fourth time to 31 December 1973.
FAO is greatly indebted to the many people who collaborated with the expert during his assignment and who offered their helpful advice and assistance, especially to Mr. Krishna Bom Malla, Mr. Bishnu Prasad Dhital and Mr. Surendra Raj Sharma, successive Secretaries of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture; Mr. Rohit Bahadur Thapa, Director of the Department of Fisheries, and his staff; Mr. Netra Bahadur Basnyat, Director-General of the Department of Agriculture of the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Irrigation; Mr. Pearl Jung Rana, Deputy Director-General of the Animal Research Division of the Department of Agriculture, and Mr. Sasanka Narayan Sarkar, acting Section Leader of the Fisheries Section of the Animal Research Division and his staff.
Initially the expert was assigned to the Department of Fisheries of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, which was staffed by a director, seven fishery officers, nine junior technicians and junior technical assistants, and one construction supervisor. Up to December 1970 three successive civil engineer members of the German Volunteer Service helped in fish culture development and in training the supervisor.
In December 1973 the staff of Fishery Section of the Animal Research Division included one section chief, 11 fishery officers, 4 acting fishery officers, 6 junior technicians and 6 junior technical assistants and one construction supervisor. Further 12 volunteers of the Peace Corps Volunteer Service and two volunteers of the Japanese Volunteer Service were helping in fish culture extension and development.
The Department of Fisheries managed the following projects in 1968:
Three breeding and distributing centres: Parwanipur (constructed in 1958, water surface to cover 0.72 ha at the beginning, a further extension in 1966 to 1.4 ha and in 1971 to 1.6 ha); Bhairawa (constructed in 1961, water surface to cover 0.5 ha at the beginning, extended in 1972 to 3.0 ha); Biratnagar (Tarhara) (constructed in 1962, water surface to cover 0.48 ha at the beginning, extension in 1967 to 1.48 ha, further extension in 1972 to 3.23 ha, the second reservoir not included).
Two small farms, Godavari (constructed in 1963, water surface 1.75) and Janakpur (constructed in 1963, water surface 2.24 ha); one Lake Development Centre in Pokhara (constructed in 1967, small tanks on the lake shore of 0.29 ha surface) which organizes the governmental fishing activity in three lakes (Phewa tal 405 ha, Begnas tal 182 ha, Rupa tal 120 ha) and their stocking with common carp fingerlings.
The main target of these projects was to provide common carp (Cyprinus carpio) fingerlings for distribution to the farmers for further growing in fish ponds, tanks and reservoirs and in paddy fields. (C. carpio was introduced in 1955 from India and in 1958 from Israel.)
The common carp fingerling production and the food fish production of the above mentioned projects is shown in the following table:
| Year | No. of fingerlings produced | Food fish produced (kg) |
| 1966/67 | 147 000 | 6 870 |
| 1967/68 | 306 200 | 5 970 |
| 1972/73 | 2 000 000 (approx.) | 31 000 |
In October 1967 the construction of the commercial fish farm at Pipley (Hetaura) was begun as the first part of the World Food Programme (WFP) Project Nepal 262, “The Establishment of Fish Farms in Rapti”. The construction of the second part of this project, the commercial fish farm at Bhandara (Rapti), started in October 1969.
When the expert arrived in Nepal the main target of fish culture development was to increase the production of common carp fingerlings in the breeding and distribution centres and small farms. Another target was to produce a limited quantity of food fish between the two fingerling production periods (between July and March).
With the construction of two commercial fish farms as pilot projects, the aim was to experiment on the practical feasibility of farm fish culture.
In introducing the Chinese major carps (herbivorous carps) and their successful artificial propagation since 1972, the foundation of the combined fish culture (mixed fish culture) was laid down. The initial trials and experiments have shown the great advantages, from a production point of view, of the combined fish culture in comparison to the monoculture of common carp.
Only in 1973 was it decided to propagate major Indian carps, the catla (Catla catla) and rohu (Labeo rohita), in Nepal in spite of the high demand for the fingerlings of these fishes, especially in the Eastern Terai area. The stock of breeders of these fishes had already been procured in the Janakpur Fish Farm.
Introducing two trout species, rainbow trout (Salmo gairdneri) and brown trout (Salmo trutta), initial results were achieved concerning the keeping and breeding of these temperate water fishes. The aim of this introduction was to keep a brood stock on the farms (Godavari and Trisuli) and to stock the offspring produced in the temperate rivers of the country. It seems probable that the trout introduced will propagate naturally in their new habitat. The trout introduced into natural waters can develop as a great attraction for sport fishing. The preconditions for trout farming in Nepal for the production of market-sized trout are not yet favourable due to the lack of ingredients of high protein content balanced feed, essential for the trout.
Until now common carp propagation is practised only in the governmental fishery projects. The steadily increasing demand for fish fingerlings, especially for herbivorous carp fingerlings, makes it necessary to change this policy. It seems obvious that the government projects can hardly cope with the increasing demand, since the area and production capacity of the fingerling producing projects are very limited. In spite of the construction of a Central Fish Hatchery at Balaju under construction with aid from the Freedom from Hunger Campaign (FFHC), and the hatchery-cum-farm (Rajbiraj, for which WFP assistance has been requested, with an increased capacity of fish fingerling production, the estimated demand during the Third Five-year Plan (1975–79) will not be met. The next step necessarily has to be to teach the farmers to propagate common carp themselves to cover their own and other fish growers' demand. In that case the government projects will produce only improved strains for brood stock of common carp and their further activity can be shifted to the increased production of fingerlings of harbivorous and Indian major carp, which fish cannot be propagated by the farmers.
The policy of the Pokhara Lakes fishery development was, at first, to introduce more efficient fishing gear, the monofilament gillnet, to replace less efficient local gear (castnet, small scoopnet, etc.) which can be used only in the shallow lake areas. The introduced gillnets were operated by fishermen in government service. Later private fishermen also learnt how to make and operate gillnets and they are now generally in use on the lakes. Due to the effective gear and the lack of protective measures, such as the regulation of the minimum catchable size, a ban on the catching of valuable fish during the propagation period and protection of the spawning grounds, the stock of valuable indigenous fish has diminished to an alarming extent in the lakes.
To increase the valuable fish stock in the lakes, common carp fingerlings were stocked in the hope that they would multiply there successfully by natural spawning. When this failed, other introductions were made. Some grass carp and silver carp were stocked as well in the lakes, without any hope that they would propagate there naturally.
These introductions were small in number and not at all proportionate to the areas of the lakes.
Since 1970/71 the trends of the lake fishery development policy were: to plan and initiate a comprehensive fishery development plan for the whole Pokhara Valley dealing with the development of the lake fishery, river fishery, pond and paddy-cum-fish culture, fish-cum-duck culture, trout culture, development of accessory cottage industries such as boatbuilding, net- and gear-making, fish preservation, transport and storage. The realization of this comprehensive plan remains a problem for the future.
No development policy was drawn up concerning river fishery development due to the lack of systematic and fundamental fishery biological surveys in the main river systems. Some occasional exploratory surveys were made only by the expert, which showed great possibilities for organized fishing activity. To work out a comprehensive fishery development policy for the rivers is a task for the future after a fishery biological survey is made. Organized sport fishing can be initiated, especially in the areas frequented by tourists. The sport angling for local fishes (mahsheer, Tor tor; asla, Schysothorax sp and Oreinus sp) and the locally developed fishing technique with loop would be a great tourist attraction of the Nepali rivers.
It is not yet decided what further policy will be adopted toward a general breakthrough in fish culture development. The following means can be chosen separately or in a combined system:
Seeking loans or international assistance to construct many government or corporation-managed larger fish farms which can produce enough table fish for the country. (Supposing 2 t/ha/year are the average production, it would be necessary to construct a 500-ha pond area to produce 1 000 t of fish which would be less than 100 g/caput/year fish consumption.) For this type of development the personnel and material conditions are not available. The area now in use is about 400 ha, with a production of some 500 t/year.
Construction of several demonstration farms and to encourage and help the farmers to construct ponds on appropriate places on their land and at the same time to organize a dependable fish fingerling supply for the farmers.
To utilize the already existing village tanks and reservoirs for intensive fish culture (estimated surface is over 2 000 ha in the country). This activity has been started already with very encouraging results and only the organization was not settled, such as how to utilize the communal water bodies (70–80 percent of these water bodies belong to the community). Here there are two choices, to utilize these by contractors or by professional fishermen's cooperatives.
In order to carry out development trends mentioned under 2 and 3 above, it is necessary to increase the fish fingerling production to safely cover the demand. This undoubtedly means an increase of the production capacity of fingerlings in the existing projects and the establishment of new hatchery-cum-farms.
Further encouragement and help are needed to develop more intensely the paddy-cum-fish culture.
