Credit: Bishnu khanal (Nepal)
Review: Bishnu khanal and Abdel Rahman El Gamal (Founder of the website)
Kulekhani resenvoir is one of the reservoir in the middle of Nepal in which cage farming takes place to produce table fish in rural areas. The inserted photo shows some of cage farmers while transporting fish seeds by boat from one corner of the reservoir to another.
As this cage fish farming was successful, it was thought that cage fish farming could also provide an alternative livelihood for displaced fishermen’s families by the Kulekhani Reservoir when a 114m-damwas constructed for hydro-power.
The adoption of plankton-based cage culture using plankton-feeding fish such as bighead carp and silver carp seem to fit more appropriately into the needs of the farmers living around Kulekhani, and offer an increased potential for long-term sustainability for this environmental friendly system. In this “no feed” system, fish advanced fingerlings or juveniles are stocked in 25-50 mm mesh cages at a density that ranges from 10-15 fish/m3. Among 500 families displaced in 1982 due to impoundment, about 81% adopted cage fish farming in the reservoir.
