Integrated Fisheries Scheme

What is the Integrated Fisheries Scheme?

Integrated Fisheries Scheme is the composite fish farming support programme run by the Directorate of Fisheries, Government of Jharkhand, which functions under the Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Cooperative Department. The scheme exists because a fish farmer who receives only one input rarely succeeds. A pond without seed is an empty hole; seed without feed grows slowly; feed without training is wasted. The integrated approach ties the components together so that a single applicant can move from bare land to a stocked, fed and harvested pond within one or two seasons.

Jharkhand has no coastline, so the entire state programme is freshwater aquaculture; ponds, tanks and the large reservoirs created by the state's dams. The Directorate delivers the programme through a District Fisheries Office in each of the 24 districts, supported by the Fish Farmers Training Centre (FFTC) and the Fisheries Research Centre, both at Ranchi.

Components published by the Directorate

• New ponds: unit cost of Rs 3.00 lakh per acre, subsidised at 90 per cent for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and 80 per cent for others.
• Seed production and supply, spawn provided to trained seed growers at subsidised rates, with two-day workshops at the FFTC for technical guidance.
• Fish feed: floating feed available from four mills, at Ranchi, Chandil, Dhanbad and Bokaro.
• Cage farming, modular and GI pipe cages floated in state reservoirs for self-employment.
• Reservoir stocking, fingerling stocking to raise the catch available to fishing families.
• Training, free residential courses with a stipend and travel fare.
• Technical support — water and soil testing at the Fisheries Research Centre, Ranchi.

Who is eligible for the Integrated Fisheries Scheme?

You can be considered if:

• You are a resident of Jharkhand.
• You hold land with a Land Possession Certificate where a pond can be dug, for the new pond component.
• You are an existing fish farmer or seed grower wishing to expand, or a first-time entrant willing to take the Directorate's training.
• You are a member of a Fishermen Co-operative Society, which is the route for the cage culture and reservoir components.
• You hold a bank account in your own name for the subsidy credit.

You are not eligible if:

• You are not a resident of Jharkhand.
• You cannot produce a Land Possession Certificate for the site. The Directorate names this document specifically for the pond component, because a pond is a permanent excavation and the title question must be settled first.
• Your site is unsuitable: soil that will not hold water, or no dependable water source, as judged by the District Fisheries Office inspection.
• You have already received subsidy for the same asset. Repeat assistance for one pond is not allowed.
• You are seeking the cage culture component without co-operative society membership, since the Directorate ties reservoir cage allotment to society members and to families displaced by the reservoir.

Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe applicants receive the higher 90 per cent share rather than 80 per cent, which is the single largest difference in what two otherwise identical applicants receive.

What documents are required?

Where the land is jointly held, the District Fisheries Office will normally ask for the written consent of co-sharers before sanctioning an excavation.

How to apply for the Integrated Fisheries Scheme

1. Visit the District Fisheries Office in your district and ask for the current year's application form and the list of components open for the year. Targets are allotted district-wise and annually, so the components available in one district may differ from another.
2. Decide which components you want: pond construction, seed, feed, cage culture or training, and confirm the current unit cost and the subsidy percentage for your category in writing before you spend anything.
3. Fill the application form with your personal details, the plot details (khata, khesra and area), the water source, and your bank account number with IFSC code.
4. Attach the Land Possession Certificate, identity proof, Aadhaar and bank passbook, plus a caste certificate if you are claiming the 90 per cent share.
5. Submit the file at the District Fisheries Office and take an acknowledgement.
6. Allow the site inspection. A fisheries officer visits to confirm soil, water availability and area before sanction is issued.
7. After sanction, carry out the work to the sanctioned dimensions, keeping bills and photographs.
8. Request post-work verification, after which the subsidy is credited to your bank account.

Separately, to join the free training component, submit the training application form with identity proof to the District Fisheries Officer.

How does the training component work?

The Directorate runs two residential courses at the Fish Farmers Training Centre, Ranchi, which was started in 2010-11 as the first state-level fisheries training centre in Jharkhand:

• a five-day residential programme for fish culturists, and
• a three-day residential programme for seed growers.

According to the Directorate, trainees are given a stipend and actual train or bus fare from their district headquarters to the training centre, so attendance costs the farmer nothing. The centre sits at Shalimar near the Vidhan Sabha in Dhurwa, Ranchi, about 6 km from Ranchi railway station and 3 km from Hatia. Its campus carries a 20-acre fish farm, a carp breeding hatchery, a laboratory, an ornamental fish rearing unit and a floating feed preparation unit. The centre reports that over 40,000 fish farmers have been trained there. Integrated fish farming is one of the modules it teaches, alongside seed raising, ornamental fish rearing and intensive fish culture.

Why do applications get rejected or delayed?

• No Land Possession Certificate, or a joint holding without co-sharer consent.
• Unsuitable site: porous soil, or no water source through the growing season.
• District target exhausted for the year. These are target-bound schemes, so a technically sound application can still be deferred to the next financial year. Applying early in the year, when targets are freshly allotted, materially improves the odds.
• Work started before sanction. Assistance is tied to a sanctioned and inspected plan, and a pond dug in anticipation is usually not funded retrospectively.
• Bank details not matching Aadhaar, which blocks the credit even after the work has been verified.
• Claiming the SC or ST share without a caste certificate on file.

Where do I contact the department?

• District Fisheries Office in your district, the correct first point of contact for the form, the inspection and the subsidy release.
• Director of Fisheries, Jharkhand: 7903048084 or 7762812020.
• Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Cooperative Department, Nepal House, Doranda, Ranchi-834002, phone 0651-2490578 and 0651-2490929.
• Fish Farmers Training Centre, Ranchi, for the residential courses.
• Fisheries Research Centre, Ranchi, for water and soil testing before you invest in a site.
• Directorate website: jharkhandfisheries.org, which carries the schemes page and district office listings.

A note on figures: the Rs 3.00 lakh per acre unit cost and the 90/80 per cent split are the figures published by the Directorate on its schemes page. Unit costs for other components change from year to year and are set in the district's annual notice, so ask for the current year's rates rather than relying on an older circular.

How to check your application status

The Integrated Fisheries Scheme has no online application portal and no public tracking dashboard, so status checking is entirely offline through the District Fisheries Office where the file was submitted.

• Use your acknowledgement receipt. When you submit the application, the District Fisheries Office issues an acknowledgement with a file or receipt number. Keep this; it is the reference the office uses to locate your case, since there is no centralised online application ID system for this scheme.
• Visit or call the District Fisheries Office directly. This is the correct first stop for every stage: whether the file has moved to site inspection, whether the inspection report has been filed, whether sanction has been issued, and whether post-work verification has been scheduled. Because targets and files are handled district by district, only your own district office can tell you where your file actually stands.
• Ask specifically which stage you are at. The file passes through distinct stages: form submitted, site inspection pending or done, sanction issued, work in progress, post-work verification pending or done, and subsidy credited. Naming the stage when you ask gets a clearer answer than a general "has my subsidy come" question.
• Escalate to the Director of Fisheries if the district office is unresponsive. If your file has been sitting for an unusually long time with no inspection scheduled or no update after work completion, call the Director of Fisheries, Jharkhand at 7903048084 or 7762812020, or contact the Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Cooperative Department at Nepal House, Doranda, Ranchi (0651-2490578 or 0651-2490929).
• Check your bank account directly for the credit. Since disbursal is the final step after post-work verification, the most concrete confirmation that your case has closed is the subsidy amount actually appearing in the bank account you provided, matched against your Aadhaar-linked details.
• Watch for the district's annual target cycle. If your file is complete and verified but payment has not come, ask the District Fisheries Office whether it is a documentation hold or a target-fund availability hold for the current financial year, since these two causes need different follow-up.