Kiran Kumar Gupta¹ , Asmita Gupta² , Dilip Kumar Jha¹ , Dependra Aryal¹

1 Agriculture and Forestry University, Rampur, Chitwan, Nepal
2 Nepal Polytechnic Institute, Purbanchal University, Bharatpur, Nepal
Author    Correspondence author
Field Crop, 2019, Vol. 2, No. 3   doi: 10.5376/fc.2019.02.0003
Received: 02 Oct., 2019    Accepted: 17 Nov., 2019    Published: 22 Oct., 2019

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Kiran K.G., Asmita G., Dilip K.J., and Dependra A., 2019, Economics of Chhadi fish (Cirrhinus mrigala) production in Bara district, Nepal, Field Crop, 2(3): 12-20 (doi: 10.5376/fc.2019.02.0003)

A study was conducted for a period of six months in 2018 from January to June with the aim of assessing the existing economics involved in Chhadi Production Technology in two locations of Bara district. Sixty farmers were purposively selected and interviewed through structured and pre-tested questionnaire in their own farms. The results showed that Males community (93.4%) dominated the fish farming business. Lease farming was common with underground water as main source of irrigation. Private hatcheries were the main source of seed. The average stocking density was 210000 fry/ha and generally used stocking size was <3 cm. Although Kathmandu size Chhadi had higher demand in market, Farmers were producing Chhadi of Malekhu size.  The average weight of feed, lime, FYM, Urea, DAP was 17.08-ton, 281.88 kg, 1790.20 kg, 531.23 kg, 641.96 kg per ha respectively. About 76.7% farmers sold Chhadi fish to whole sellers. The price of Chhadi was increasing but at a very slow rate. The Total Variable Cost, Total Fixed Cost, Total Revenue and Benefit cost Ratio without and with fixed cost were Rs 827390, Rs 286600, Rs 1470000, 2.17 and 1.77 respectively which indicated the enterprise as a profitable business. Marketing i.e. Dhalta (a local term for sale in which the farmer is paid only for 5 kg for every 6-7 kg of fish sold) is posed a serious problem in the study area. The study suggested that provision of extension and delivery of technical knowledge and subsidies with establishment and operation of Post–harvest center accompanied by chilling vans is vital for improvement, uniformity, effectiveness and spread of production system.

Chhadi fish; Economics; Benefit Cost Ratio; Dhalta; Post-harvest center