Feed Based Fisheries Scheme (Fish Feed Support for Jharkhand Fish Farmers)

What is the Feed Based Fisheries Scheme?

The Feed Based Fisheries Scheme is the fish feed component of the Jharkhand Directorate of Fisheries, part of the Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Cooperative Department. Its purpose is to remove the input that most often caps fish production in the state: good quality feed, available locally, at a price a small fish farmer can pay.

Fish farming in Jharkhand has historically been extensive rather than intensive. A farmer stocks a pond, relies on whatever the water naturally produces, and harvests a modest crop. Moving to intensive culture, more fish per hectare, faster growth, a harvest that can be timed to the market; requires manufactured feed, and manufactured feed brought in from outside the state is expensive and irregular. The department's answer was to set up feed mills inside Jharkhand, run by fisheries cooperative societies, so the feed is produced close to the ponds and cages that need it.

According to the Directorate of Fisheries, floating fish feeds are available for farmers at Ranchi, Chandil, Dhanbad and Bokaro feed mills, which are run by co-operative societies, and the feed has a good quantity of protein for fish growth. The department's own resource statement records 4 fish feed mills with the rest under commissioning.

Why floating feed matters

Floating feed is not a marketing detail. A sinking pellet disappears into the mud and the farmer never knows how much was eaten and how much rotted. Uneaten feed decomposes, uses up dissolved oxygen and fouls the water, which is a particular problem in a cage where fish density is high. Floating feed stays on the surface long enough for the farmer to watch the fish take it and stop feeding when they stop rising.

That is why the feed programme sits so closely alongside Jharkhand's cage culture programme. The Directorate describes Jharkhand as one of the leading states in cage fish farming, with modular and GI pipe cages floated in reservoirs including Chandil, Maithan, Tenughat, Konar, Masanjor and Tilaiya. It is not a coincidence that three of the four feed mill locations: Ranchi, Chandil, Bokaro and Dhanbad — line up with the districts the department lists as cage culture and feed mill centres.

Which districts are the feed mills in?

The Directorate's district-wise aquaculture activity list places feed mills and related activity as follows:

Ranchi additionally hosts the NFDB-assisted wholesale fish market at Shalimar, so a farmer in the Ranchi belt can buy feed and sell the harvest inside the same district.

Who is eligible for feed support?

You can apply if:

• You are a fish farmer in Jharkhand operating a pond, tank, dobha or MGNREGA well used for aquaculture, and can show the water body you are farming.
• You are a member of a registered fisheries cooperative society. Jharkhand has 401 registered societies, and the feed mills themselves are run by cooperative societies, so members get the most direct access.
• You are a cage culture operator with an allotted cage on a reservoir.
• You are a trained seed grower rearing spawn supplied on subsidy by the department.

You cannot apply or are not eligible if:

• You do not operate a pond, tank or allotted cage in Jharkhand. Feed quantity is assessed against the water body being farmed, so there is nothing to assess without one.
• You are resident outside Jharkhand. The mills serve state fish farmers.
• You are seeking a cage allotment without fisheries cooperative society membership. Reservoir cage rights are routed through societies.
• You are applying for the new pond subsidy without a Land Possession Certificate. The department treats the LPC as essential and also requires that the land be suitable for pond construction.

There is no caste bar on feed supply, though the department's related pond subsidy is differentiated: 90 per cent for SC and ST applicants and 80 per cent for others, against a unit cost of Rs 3.00 lakh for a one-acre pond.

How to apply for fish feed

1. Contact the feed mill or JHASCOFISH. For Ranchi, the Directorate publishes the contact as Assistant Manager, JHASCOFISH, +91-8002489880. For Chandil, Bokaro and Dhanbad, approach the mill through your District Fisheries Officer or the local cooperative society.
2. Collect the application form for the feed component from the Notice Boards/Forms or Main Menu section of jharkhandfisheries.org, or from your District Fisheries Office.
3. Submit the form with identity proof to the District Fisheries Officer of your district. The Directorate routes every citizen-facing component: training, fish farming, new pond, seed and feed: through the District Fisheries Officer.
4. Attach proof of the water body you are farming: a Land Possession Certificate for a pond, or the cage allotment record for cage culture, along with your society membership record and bank passbook.
5. Collect the feed from the mill against the sanction, and keep the receipt. Where a subsidy component applies, the amount is transferred to the bank account of the beneficiary or the society.

How to get the most out of the feed

1. Get trained first. The Fish Farmers Training Centre runs a five-day residential training for fish culturists; trainees submit forms with identity proof to the District Fisheries Officer and receive a stipend plus actual train or bus fare from the district headquarters.
2. Test your water and soil. The Fisheries Research Centre at Ranchi conducts water and soil testing as technical scientific support to fish culturists. Feeding heavily into water with the wrong chemistry wastes the feed.
3. Use the helpline for problems. The Assistant Director Fisheries (Research) handles day-to-day troubleshooting on 0651-2440885.
4. Attend the seed growers' workshop. Trained seed growers are called back to the training centre for a two-day workshop where they discuss successes and failures with technical officers and make recommendations for the coming year's budget.

Common reasons a feed application stalls

• No identity proof with the form, which the Directorate specifically requires.
• No proof of the water body, so the officer cannot assess a quantity.
• No society membership where the component is routed through a cooperative society.
• Mill stock or transport constraints in a given month; feed is manufactured, not stockpiled indefinitely.
• Annual sanction exhausted. Components are financed against a yearly allotment published in the Rajyadesh (Sanction) and Allotment sections of jharkhandfisheries.org.

Related support worth claiming together

• Fish seed: trained seed growers are given spawn on subsidy, rear it and sell it on their own account.
• Marketing: fisheries cooperative societies can get assistance for pick-up vans, and retail stalls are available on 80 to 90 per cent subsidy.
• Housing: Ved Vyas Awaas Yojana gives poor fishers in kuccha houses 100 per cent assistance for a house at a unit cost of Rs 1.20 lakh.
• Insurance: the PMMSY Group Accident Insurance Scheme covers active fishermen aged 18 to 70 for Rs 5,00,000 on death or complete permanent disability, Rs 2,50,000 for partial permanent disability and Rs 25,000 towards hospitalisation, with intimation due within 90 days and documents within 180 days.

Where to get help

• Feed enquiries, Ranchi: Assistant Manager, JHASCOFISH, +91-8002489880.
• Fish farming troubleshooting: Assistant Director Fisheries (Research), 0651-2440885.
• Training: Chief Instructor, Fish Farmers Training Centre, 0651-2440263.
• Feedback and query form on jharkhandfisheries.org.
• Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Cooperative Department, Nepal House, Doranda, Ranchi 834002, phone 0651-2490929 or 0651-2490578, email jhagriculture@gmail.com.

How to check your application status

The feed component runs offline, through the District Fisheries Officer and the cooperative-run mills, and jharkhandfisheries.org does not carry an application-tracking login for it. Once you have submitted a form, use these routes instead.

1. Call JHASCOFISH first if your form went through the Ranchi mill. The Assistant Manager, JHASCOFISH can confirm on +91-8002489880 whether your form has been logged and where it sits against the current sanction.
2. Follow up in person or by phone with your District Fisheries Officer for Chandil, Bokaro and Dhanbad, or for any district where you routed the form through the local office rather than JHASCOFISH directly. Every citizen-facing component, feed included, is processed through this office, so it is the authoritative record of your submission.
3. Ask specifically about the annual sanction, not just your form. Because feed is financed against a yearly allotment published in the Rajyadesh (Sanction) and Allotment sections of jharkhandfisheries.org, a form can be correctly received and still wait on that year's sanction being released or on mill stock catching up. The officer can tell you which of the two you are waiting on.
4. Check with your fisheries cooperative society if you applied as a member. Societies coordinate the mill's supply schedule with the District Fisheries Office and often know the delivery date before an individual farmer's enquiry reaches the officer.
5. Use the feedback and query form on jharkhandfisheries.org if phone follow-up does not get a clear answer, or route a written query to the Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Cooperative Department at Nepal House, Doranda, Ranchi 834002 (phone 0651-2490929 or 0651-2490578, email jhagriculture@gmail.com).
6. Keep your submission receipt and the date you handed in the form. Since there is no portal reference number for this component, the date and the officer's acknowledgment are what you cite when following up, so hold on to both until the feed is actually collected.