Delivering climate information services for climate smart fish pond and disease management to more than 1 million fish farmers in the State of Odisha, India

In September 2020 WorldFish collaborated with Reliance Foundation Information Services (RFIS) for delivering climate services to fish-farmers in the State of Odisha, India. A phone survey of 70 fish farmers was conducted in the districts of Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Puri, Mayurbhanj, Kalahandi and Baleshwar of Odisha to identify the farm and fisheries relevant information to tailor climate services. The survey revealed that forecasting of cold spells is the most helpful climate information for the fish-farmers in Odisha followed by critical temperatures (high and low) and monsoon onset prediction.

Moreover, 34% of the fish-farmers respond for heavy rainfall forecast as the most preferred information, 21% for monsoon, 20% for cold spell and 12% for the critical temperatures (high or low) forecast. As their second most preferred information, 37% of the farmers respond for natural disaster, 26% for the heavy rainfall, 12% for monsoon onset and cold spell information. Apart from this, the dry spell information is the least preferred information. 64% of the respondents say that during dry spell they face scarcity of the fresh water, however, to cope with this scarcity most of the farmers have secondary source of water supplies such as canal water, borewell water and others. The survey also reveals direct voice as most preferred mode of receiving climate information by fish-farmers followed by SMS service and Mobile app particularly Whats App. Conversely, television, newspaper and radio are the least preferred modes of receiving the information as responded by the fish-farmers. This is because large subscription of the phone in the State is the easiest and most preferred mode of receiving the information.

The climatic based advisories for the winter season include the pre-season support, in-season support and the post season support. Seasonal support uses the long term and short term climatic information forecast by IMD, Bhubaneswar for the particular season, to support fish pond management, disease management, application of aqua medicines to enhance the fish production.

Climate based information has been disseminated to 1.10 million farmers who are not only the fish-farmers but also integrated farmers (aquaculture, agriculture, horticulture, livestock, diary and fisheries). WorldFish is in the process of developing a separate database for aquaculture and fisheries sector aiming to expand further the dissemination reach.

The delivered climate information services are on fish pond management, disease management and on the Government schemes for helping smallholder fish farmers to cope with the adverse effects of the climate variabilities. RFIS disseminates the climate information through mobile based audio/text advisories, WhatsApp based audio/video/rich text advisories, Jio Chat based text messages and multi-location audio/video conferences.

Till now 8 messages have been disseminated through the RFIS platform, among them 4 messages on climatic based information and 4 on Government support schemes. Climate information services for the winter season was also disseminated, with details given below: 

The pre-winter season information was disseminated on 27^th November 2020 among 23,700 of inland fish farmers from Angul, Balangir, Baleswar, Bargarh, Baudh, Bhadrak, Cuttack, Debgarh, Dhenkanal, Ganjam, Jagatsinghpur, Jajapur, Kalahandi, Kendrapada, Khorda, Mayurbhanj, Nayagarh, Malkangiri, Nuapada, Rayagada, Sambalpur, Puri, Subarnapur District through audio / text advisory and text content disseminated among 7425 No’s of WhatsApp users WhatsApp group. 

The content on fish pond and feed management during adverse weather condition during winter season was disseminated on 28^th January 2021 among 39,510 of inland fish farmers from Angul, Balangir, Baleswar, Bargarh, Baudh, Bhadrak, Cuttack, Debgarh, Dhenkanal, Ganjam, Jagatsinghpur, Jajapur, Kalahandi, Kendrapada, Khorda, Mayurbhanj, Nayagarh, Malkangiri, Nuapada, Rayagada, Sambalpur, Puri, Subarnapur District through audio/text based advisories and text based advisories among 7425 of WhatsApp users. 

The message which was disseminated through M-Kissan web portal was on fingerling collection and stocking before ending monsoon. It was disseminated to 1.10 million farmers who are not only the fish-farmers but also integrated farmers (aquaculture, agriculture, horticulture, livestock, diary and fisheries). WorldFish is in the process of developing a separate database for aquaculture and fisheries sector and resume the information dissemination process via M-Kissan web portal in 2021. In this line, 223,287 of inland fish farmers and marine fishermen were already collected from the Directorate of fisheries, Odisha. WorldFish is checking the database for the actual active numbers for further outreach with climate services in 2021.