Community Fishery Development Project, Meghalaya

What is the Community Fishery Development Project?

The Community Fishery Development Project is a scheme of the Fisheries Department, Government of Meghalaya. According to the scheme entry on meghalaya.gov.in, its objective is "Financial Assistance for new Constitution/Renovation of Ponds/Tanks and providing subsidiary for inputs at 50%". The portal records the project as 100 percent state funded with a launch date of 1 April 2007.

The project targets a real strength of Meghalaya's villages. The Meghalaya State Aquaculture Mission document observes that the people of the state show strong community bonds and a culture of community management of village resources, and that community ponds created earlier by the Department are still rated as well maintained. It names Mawpdang, Jaud, Lyniong, Khulia, Bonbudai and Mawtneng as examples of successful community ponds. At Mawtneng in Ri-Bhoi district, the Mission document records, the pond is managed so efficiently that revenue from fish sales pays the salary of teachers in the village school.

Community fishery therefore sits alongside individual pond construction in the state's fisheries strategy. Where the individual pond scheme puts a small pond on one family's land, the Community Fishery Development Project and the linked community pond component of the Aquaculture Mission put a larger water body under collective management.

Who is eligible for the Community Fishery Development Project?

You can apply if:

• You represent a village, community, society or collective body of fish farmers in Meghalaya.
• Your group has, or will create, a minimum water area of 0.50 hectare; approximately 5,000 square metres. This is stated verbatim on the state portal entry as the eligibility condition.
• Your group has secure access to the pond site through village or clan tenure, certified by the local headman.
• Your group can supply the community labour for excavation that the cost norm assumes.

Fishery Co-operative Societies and Multi Purpose Co-operative Societies are explicitly considered for community pond work. The Aquaculture Mission document allocated 143 of the 500 hectares of community pond target to FCS and MPCS bodies, and stated that the same norms prescribed for community ponds apply to the cooperative sector as well.

You cannot apply if:

• You are an individual farmer or a single household. Individuals are not eligible under this project and should instead use the Construction of Individual Ponds component, which is built around a 0.1 hectare pond and a different subsidy structure.
• Your available water area is below 0.50 hectare, which is the floor set on the state portal.
• Your group cannot show a settled right over the proposed site. Disputed clan or village land is the most frequent reason a community fishery file stalls.
• You are a cooperative society but are trying to file directly rather than through the Assistant Registrar of Co-operative Societies of your district, the route the Mission prescribes for society applications.

How much assistance does the project give?

Two figures matter, and they come from different documents.

On inputs, the state portal states that the subsidy for inputs is 50 percent. Inputs here means the recurring items that make a new pond productive — lime, cow dung, fertiliser, fingerlings and feed.

On construction, the Aquaculture Mission adopted the Government of India norm for community ponds:

This is deliberately lower per hectare than the individual pond norm. The Mission document explains why: the community is expected to contribute the labour for digging the pond, which is the single largest item of capital cost, so the full commercial labour cost is not built into the community estimate. An individual family, by contrast, has a limited number of workers and cannot complete a significant portion of the digging in a given period, so the individual pond estimate is prepared on actual labour requirement.

The pond size supported is 0.5 hectare, subject to a maximum of 2.00 hectares each, and the Mini Mission target was 500 hectares of community pond water area at about 100 hectares a year.

The portal is candid that the amount is not automatic: "the subsidy will be distributed based on the feasibility of the project."

What documents does a village or society need?

How to apply for the Community Fishery Development Project

1. Hold a meeting of the Village Durbar, society or collective body and pass a written resolution to take up a community pond, naming the members who will manage it and the site proposed.
2. Get the headman's No Objection Certificate for the site from the Rangbah Shnong, Nokma or Sirdar, and assemble the land record showing the community's right over the plot.
3. Prepare a simple project proposal with a site sketch, the water area in hectares, the water source, the number of households that will benefit, and whether the work is new construction or renovation of an existing tank.
4. Submit the proposal on plain paper with enclosures to the Sub-Divisional Fishery Officer or the Superintendent of Fisheries-cum-District Executive Officer for your district. Cooperative societies submit through the Assistant Registrar of Co-operative Societies of the district.
5. Allow the departmental site survey. Technical staff assess whether the site can hold the claimed water area, whether the water source is dependable, and whether the community can supply the labour assumed in the cost norm.
6. Follow the file to the District Aquaculture Mission Committee, chaired by the Deputy Commissioner, which scrutinises and recommends proposals for approval.
7. Open or update the group's bank account and complete the formalities once sanction is issued, then begin work under departmental supervision.

How to track a community fishery proposal

Meghalaya does not publish an online tracker for this project. The practical route is:

1. Confirm with the Sub-Divisional Fishery Officer that the proposal was received and registered.
2. Ask whether the technical feasibility survey has been completed and what the report said about your water area.
3. Ask the District Executive Officer whether the proposal has gone before the District Aquaculture Mission Committee.
4. After sanction, ask when the first tranche will be released to the group's account and what completion certificate the Department will need.

Common reasons a proposal fails

• Water area short of 0.50 hectare. This is a stated eligibility floor, not a guideline, and a survey that measures less than 5,000 square metres ends the case.
• Unsettled land rights between clans or between the village and a private claimant.
• No headman's NOC, or an NOC signed by someone without authority over the plot.
• No credible labour commitment from the community, when the cost norm assumes community digging.
• Applying as an individual under a scheme designed for collectives.
• Unreliable water source that cannot sustain the pond through the dry months.

Grievance and help

• Sub-Divisional Fishery Officer-cum-Sub-Divisional Executive Officer for your sub-division, the first point of contact.
• Superintendent of Fisheries-cum-District Executive Officer in your district.
• Director of Fisheries, Meghalaya, Shillong, who heads the Directorate and is also Chief Executive Officer of the Fish Farmer Development Agency.
• Deputy Commissioner of the district, who chairs the District Aquaculture Mission Committee.
• stateportal-meg[at]gov[dot]in for questions about the scheme entry on meghalaya.gov.in.

There is no application fee. Assistance is released to the collective body's account, and no agent can charge a village for getting a community pond sanctioned.