Assessment of Fish Seed Production and Its Correlation with Fish Yield in Rajasthan, India
N.C. Ujjania
*
Department of Aquatic Biology, VNSGU, Surat (Gujarat), India.
L.L. Sharma
College of Fisheries, MPUAT, Udaipur (Rajasthan), India.
C.P. Juyal
Department of Fisheries (GOR), Jaipur (Rajasthan), India.
V.K. Ujjania
Division of Aquaculture (ICAR-CIFE) Mumbai (Maharashtra), India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
The water resources of Rajasthan exist in the form of reservoirs, lakes, rivers, canals etc., which are used for fisheries purposes and contribute huge amounts of fish production. The potential of these water bodies could be exploited by the application of appropriate farming practices and justified inputs. In this study, the relationship between fish farming input i.e. fish seed production and fish production of the state for the last 25 years 2000-2001 to 2024-25 is evaluated. The secondary data for the present study was collected from various sources including Annual report (2025) published by Directorate of Fisheries (Government of Rajasthan) and Handbook on Fisheries Statistics (2024) published by Department of Fisheries (Government of India). The result indicated that in the initial years of the study 2000-2001 fish production (12,141 metric tons) and fish seed production (231.00 million fry) were relatively low while in 2024-2025, these were subsequently high 1, 01,108 metric tons and 14, 50.00 million fry. The relationship between the variables (fish seed production and fish production) shows linear straight line and the correlation coefficient (R2) was 0.910 thus shows a significant positive relationship. The linear equation (Y = 57.685 X - 645.370) and the regression coefficient (b) showed that one million fry can increase of 57.685 metric tons of fish production. The data analysis and results also revealed that the produced fish seed quantity neither fulfils the demand of the fish farmers nor is sufficient to adequately stock the water bodies of the state. The requirement of quantity of quality fish seed could be fulfilled by the development of fish hatcheries by state government or by promoting the established private hatcheries. It is also suggested to develop the appropriate supply chain for fish seed for better utilization of water resources in the state as well as for enhancing the fish production and productivity of available fisheries resources. Therefore, it is advised to establish more functional hatcheries or strengthen the existing hatcheries (government sector or private sectors), which may help to increase the seed production for the optimum utilization of the water bodies and encourage the fish farming in the state.
Keywords: Fish production, fish seed production, growth rate, Rajasthan waters