: Assam Woman’s Innovative Tech for ‘Land-Based’ Fish Farming Earns Rs 15 Lakh Turnover #IndiaNEWS #Farming This article is part of The Better India’s series #EarnYourIndependence through which

Posted in: #IndiaNEWS #Farming #EarnYourIndependence

Assam Woman’s Innovative Tech for ‘Land-Based’ Fish Farming Earns Rs 15 Lakh Turnover #IndiaNEWS #Farming
This article is part of The Better India’s series #EarnYourIndependence through which we celebrate Indians achieving financial freedom in innovative ways.

Ranjita Saikia Deka, despite facing a huge crisis in her 15-year-old business, bravely put her feet forward in a unique way of pisciculture. She is one of the first from Assam to start land-based fish farming using Recirculating Aquaculture System (RAS) technology.

“Life has its own ups and downs, whatever the situation its necessary for us to accept it in a positive mindset because every challenge is an opportunity,�? says Ranjita Saikia Deka during a conversation with The Better India.

From a very tender age, she wanted to do something innovative and out-of-the-box. In 2005, when the internet was at its nascent stage, she took up the mission of creating awareness on using the internet and other modern technologies and started taking free classes. Eventually, she opened an online service shop in the Dhemaji district. “Things went well till March 2020, but COVID and its subsequent lockdowns forced us to shut shop for more than a year which affected us financially,�? she adds.

But Ranjita never wanted to stick to one source of income. So, in 2018, she started doing aquaponics. “One day while scrolling through YouTube, I saw a video on aquaponics and that’s where the idea came to my mind. I was fascinated by the technique of growing organic vegetables and fishes altogether in the same environment. �?

Ranjita’s aquaponics business was a grand success, and witnessing this the Fishery Department approached her to set up this hi-tech project under India’s Blue Revolution Scheme in 2017-18.

Ranjita Saikia Deka

The success of the project, in the last two years, has compelled many from various nooks and corners of Assam and outside have approached Ranjita to learnt about the technique. But only six to seven people have been able to successfully learn and implement this technique.

Neeti Deb, wife of former Chief Minister of Tripura Biplab Deb has also visited Ranjitas farm and showed her keenness to start the project in her native state.

“To be honest, I never imagined my trial and error methods of aquaponics would be so popular. The success boosted my confidence to do something big in the fisheries sector and accordingly, I tried my hands at RAS technology,�? she reveals.

First introduced in Isreal Recirculating Aquaculture System (RAS) is a hi-tech land-based fish farming which primarily aims to increase fish production with the optimum use of land. It also greatly helped in water conservation.