Prior to her husband’s retirement, Bakht Jan’s life in Dowarian, Neelum Valley, was simple, but comfortable. Her husband, Mirza Abdul Rasheed, worked as a peon in the Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries Department. The couple owned a cow which provided milk and ghee for domestic use. And Rasheed’s salary took care of other needs.

Their troubles began five years ago when it was time for Rasheed to retire at the age of 60, after 35 years of service. Bakht, who was 50 years of age at the time, remembers feeling helpless. “Without his salary, I didn’t know how I would run the household and feed our family,” recalls the 55-year-old mother of two daughters and one son.

They managed to make do for a couple of years. But it was not sustainable. Bakht had no formal education or training. And Rasheed had limited options at his age. Luckily, things were about to change for the better for the family.

Two years after retirement, Rasheed came home bearing good news. “He said that the fisheries department was giving money to build a trout fish farm to anyone who has land with water access,” recalls Bakht.

Trout fish farming is becoming a sustainable source of income and nutrition for the residents of Neelum Valley and other parts of Azad Jammu and Kashmir

Hoping to set up a fish farm, Rasheed completed the paperwork for submission to the department. It all happened fast. Just a week later, the department’s team came to survey the land.

The team found the land and water in Dowarian suitable for a trout fish farm to be built at the estimated cost of four million rupees. The department would pay 3.2 million rupees while Rasheed had to invest the remaining amount.

After getting approval from the department, Rasheed and Bakht started working on the fish farm. Within two months, it was ready. “Fish was brought from the hatchery in Dowarian and put in the farm pond,” says Bakht.

Bakht now arrives at the farm before sunrise and stays there well after sunset. “I feed the fish twice a day and my husband’s duty is at night,” she says. “We have to make sure that the water supply of the pond is not cut off and the fish is not stolen. I also run a small grocery store near the fish farm.”

CHANGING LIVES

Like Bakht and Rasheed, 46-year-old Chaudhry Khaqan, is also running his fish farm since two months in Leswa Khatiyan, Neelum Valley.

“Before setting up the fish farm, we used to irrigate our land with a nearby stream to grow corn,” he says. “When the fisheries department told us that trout could be raised in this water, we took their advice.”

Khaqan says that fish farming gives him the option of making a decent living throughout the year. “If you are dependent on agriculture alone, crops can be badly damaged by heavy rains, pests and other weather related diseases,” he says. “I hope that in a year my financial situation improves and I am able to educate my children well.”

Changing the lives of the mostly poor rural communities in remote parts of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) is an on-going federal government-funded project to promote trout farming. This project is a part of a larger initiative aimed at promoting trout farming in the northern areas.

Locals in these areas are mostly depend on agriculture and natural resources for their livelihood and do not have adequate income generation opportunities. The project aims to remedy this by encouraging rural farmers and growers to produce high quality protein for their own consumption and to generate income by selling farmed fish.

Apart from its three main rivers Neelum, Jhelum and Poonch, AJK has seasonal and perennial streams, nullahs, springs, canals, etc. So there is considerable potential for the development of fish culture and fisheries on modern, scientific lines.

“Raising trout commercially is a profitable alternative to conventional agriculture as it can be done on very little land, provided the water conditions in the facility and the care and feeding of the trout is properly maintained,” says Naheem Dar, director general of the Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries Department, AJK.

The overall production of fish in AJK is almost 840 metric tonnes. Eighteen warm water farms, for common carp, and seven cold water fish farms, for trout, have been developed on public-private partnership in district Muzaffarabad, Neelum, Jhelum and Bagh. Trout fish hatcheries have been constructed at Pattika, Kutan, Dowarian, Kel Seri and Taobat. A warm water hatchery has also been constructed at Chikar, while another hatchery is under construction at Mohater Chikar, Jhelum Valley.

Work has begun on the construction of 50 more fish farms, out of which 30 are in the colder parts of AJK such as Neelum Valley, Leepa and Haveli. Twenty are warm water ponds in warmer parts of AJK such as Mirpur, Kotli and Bhimber. Along with stocking trout fingerlings in different water bodies, the project also entails developing sport fisheries through angling tourism or fishing tournaments.

The federal government has allocated 43 million rupees for AJK (2021-2022), while the private sector will share an investment of 28 million rupees as farmer share. Construction of farms in the private sector is almost complete, while the construction of 10 more trout and eight warm water fish farms is being planned in the current financial year to ensure the participation of private sector in fisheries at local level.

After the completion of the project, the estimated income from 30 trout farms would be 90 million rupees per annum for the private sector, according to Rabia Ilyas, the project manager at the Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries Department. “The income from fish hatcheries from the sale of fish seed per annum is estimated to be five million rupees for the public sector,” Ilyas adds.

Happiness has returned to Bakht Jan’s life. She has started selling trout from her farm for 2500 rupees to 3000 rupees per kilogramme. She mainly sells through Facebook, where her son posts about the availability of fish.

Bakht Jan has also pinned her future plans on the trout income. “I have already started saving from my trout business,” she says happily. “I will use this money for my children’s weddings and I don’t have to worry about that anymore.”

The writer is a freelance environmental journalist based in Muzaffarabad.

He tweets @sajidmir44

Published in Dawn, EOS, July 3rd, 2022