Case Studies

sectors > Sustainable Livelihoods
Prawning Wastelands
HARYANA

THE INITIATIVE

  • Introduction of prawn cultivation in salineaffected wastelands

THE BENEFICIARIES

  • Farmers of uncultivable wastelands in Rohtak district, Haryana

THE CHALLENGE

  • Poor agricultural practices which had resulted in salineaffected wastelands
  • Resistance to new methods of farming
  • Lack of information about prawn cultivation and scepticism about its viability

THE SOLUTION

  • NABARD sanctioned a project to the Central Institute of Fisheries Education
  • Farmers leased part of their saline lands to CIFE and took up shrimp cultivation under its guidance
  • Disease-free tiger shrimp larvae (seed) were imported from Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh
  • Farmers were brought within the fold of JLGs

THE IMPACT

  • Salinity-affected uncultivable wastelands now an economic asset for farmers
  • Farmers sell shrimps in markets in Delhi at the rate of ? 400 per kg
  • Local farmers and their collectives are now players in the tiger shrimp market in Delhi