CIFRI Awards
Mer beel, Nagaon district, Assam
ICAR-CIFRI successfully carried out a Front-Line Demonstration on culture of Systomus sarana (Olive barb) in CIFRI HDPE pen enclosures in Mer beel, Nagaon district, Assam under National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB) funded project titled ‘Leveraging Auto-Recruiting Indigenous Species for Sustainable Enhancement and Conservation of Wetland Fisheries’. On the occasion of successful harvest of fishes reared in pens, a Field Day on “Harvest of fishes reared in pen enclosures” was also organized on 17th February, 2026 at Mer beel. The programme was organized under the overall guidance of Dr. B. K. Das, Director, ICAR-CIFRI, Barrackpore; Dr. S. K. Majhi, Head and Dr. Lianthuamluaia, Senior Scientist and Principal Investigator (PI) of the project. Dr. Simanku Borah, Senior Scientist, ICAR-CIFRI Regional Centre, Guwahati & Co-PI of the NFDB funded project, co-ordinated and conducted the demonstration, while the Field Day was organized by Dr. S. Borah with support from Mr. Bipul Das, Technician and Mr. M. Hoque, YP-II, ICAR-CIFRI Regional Centre, Guwahati.
Fingerlings of S. sarana measuring 10-15 g initial weight were stocked in pens during October, 2025. Approximately 200 kg of fish seed were stocked in two CIFRI HDPE pens, each of 0.1 ha area. The fishes were fed with pelleted feed with 28% crude protein twice daily and at the rate of 2-3% body weight. After five months of culture the fishes were harvested during February, 2026. The survival rate was calculated to be over 70% and the final weight of fishes ranged from 60 g to as high as 111 g. The harvested fishes were then released to the beel for further growth, recruitment and stock enhancement. Mr. Rakhal Das, Lessee of Mer beel expressed his gratitude to ICAR-CIFRI, Barrackpore and to its Guwahati Regional Centre as well as to NFDB, Hyderabad for the initiative. He expressed full satisfaction on the success of the pen culture demonstration and the benefits and experience he had gained from the initiative.
