Kochi, Aug 13 (IANS): When the going gets tough, very tough during the Covid pandemic, the tough get going. A group of fish farmers from the Scheduled Caste community reaped good profits through a bumper harvest of pearl spot (Karimeen) from their cage fish farming venture.

The cage farming was part of a special programme of the Scheduled Caste Sub Plan (SCSP) of the Kochi based Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) for the SC community.

A self-help group named 'Puzhayoram' in Maradu recorded a yield of 600 kg of pearl spot from a 4x4m square-sized cage fish installed in the Maradu-Nettoor backwaters.

K. Madhu, principal scientist of the CMFRI and the Principal Investigator of the project, said the harvested fish was completely sold out on the spot itself and the SC families in the region reaped a profit of Rs 2,73,000 from a 10-month long farming period that started in October last year by stocking 2000 seeds of pearl spot.

"As part of the programme, the CMFRI had provided the group with cage, seeds, feed for the entire farming period and other ancillary facilities, free of cost and the researchers from the institute guided the farmers during all the phases of the farming. The cage farming venture has helped them sustain their livelihood to a certain extent", said Madhu.

Speaking on the occasion of harvesting, A. Gopalakrishnan, director of CMFRI, said the cage farming technology and other fish farming activities of CMFRI have proved their potential to accelerate the pace of development of the SC and ST families. The institute is always focused on empowering the marginalised sections of the society through small-scale enterprises by extending its technologies to them.