PESHAWAR, June 23: Apart from other people associated with different trades and professions, the fish farmers of the tourist resort of Madyan in Swat valley have been hit hard by the armed conflict between security forces and militants as they can neither sell fish due to fall in number of tourists nor are able to export the commodity owing to lack of facilities.

Madyan, famous for trout fish, looks deserted despite peak of tourists’ season. “The fish farmers have no idea what to do with the fish in their farms,” said Mohammad Rasheed, who owns three fish farms in Madyan.

He said that before the conflict, the number of fish produced in the farms was enough for consumption of tourists who came here during the season.

“I have not sold any fish in this season. I have about 5,000 kilograms of fish in my three farms. I don’t know what to do,” he lamented and complained of sharp fall in the sale owing to the decreasing number of tourists during the last two years.

“There is sharp fall in demand of fish as all the hotels in the area are closed,” said a worried Rasheed, who has been farming fish and selling it to local hotels since 1988.

He set up farms with the help of NWFP Fisheries Directorate which started its pilot project in Trout Fish Farming in Madyan with the help of Asian Development Bank in 1984.

The farms in Madyan produces sufficient amount of fish for the consumption of tourists. But militancy and army operation put the last nail in the coffin of dying tourism and hotel businesses in the valley.

Rasheed said that fish farmers should be facilitated by the government to sell or export their fish for they had no resources. He said that he was incurring loss in the business. He spends Rs8,000 to Rs12,000 daily on his three fish farms.

He said that there were about 15 fish farms and all of them were facing problems as sale had come to nil. He demanded of the government to help them export the fish.

Mohammad Ayaz, provincial director of fisheries, said that they had been running from post to pillar to export fish as number of tourists to Swat had fallen sharply.

He said that he contacted businessmen in Gulf and Saudi Arabia and sent samples to the US but all in vain.

The officials of NWFP Fisheries Directorate said that basically their job was to provide training and technical assistance in fish farming and selling fish was not their job.

However, the public-sector hatcheries which produced about 10,000 kg of fish per annum sold it to generate revenue for the government department.

The private-sector fish farms in NWFP produced about 30,000 kg per annum, the official added.

“We sold the stock lying with the public sector to embassies and hotels at the rate of Rs350 per kg,” the officials said. But, they said, it was a Herculean task to sell the produce of the private farms.

While the fisheries directorate almost ‘disposed-of’ the stock of fish and earned Rs1.3 million from the sale, they have not been able to help the owners of private fish farms. The officials expressed their helplessness at the situation.

“We contacted the Metro store in Islamabad but they wanted us to sign an agreement and demanded daily supply.

We could not ensure daily supply due to high transportation charges so we backed out,” said the official.