The number of farmers involved in fishery has increased over the years in Bardia after their income started doubling.

Most of the farmers have switched to commercial fish farming from traditional crops, making Badaiyatal Rural Municipality a new hub for fish farms.

The agricultural development office in Bardia had implemented a “fish mission”, a programme to increase production, since the fiscal year 2007-2008. It had launched a number of incentive schemes to attract farmers.

Farmers were provided Rs 100,000 per bigha of the pond as subsidy.

In Badaiyatal Rural Municipality, ponds have been dug on 250 hectares.

The Prime Minister's Agriculture Modernization Project Implementation Unit office said they have been supporting fish farming on 171 hectares.

Sitaram Chaudhary, a local of the Badaiyatal Rural Municipality, who has been engaged in fish farming for the last two decades, said he left paddy cultivation after his income doubled from the fish farms.

He has ponds on 10 bighas.

"In a short period of time, we have been able to earn a good income from fish farming. The income has doubled," said Chaudhary.

Chaudhary said that the number of fish farmers has been rising sharply in the rural municipality due to the availability of a ready market.

Man Bahadur Khatri, a technical assistant of the Prime Minister's Agriculture Modernization Project unit office, said that most of the fish farms are in Badaiyatal-5.

"More than 150 farmers are involved in commercial fish farming in Badaiyatal-5," he said. "The project has been providing various technical assistance and subsidies for the fishery zone,” he said.

Farmer Toyanath Bhusal of Badaiyatal-5 said he supplies fish produced on his farm to Banke, Surkhet, Dang and Kailali. “Fish farming is relatively easy and yields a higher income compared to cereal crops.”

“Due to higher profit, most of the farmers are leaving their traditional cereal crop production and investing heavily in fish farms,” he said.

“We do not need to worry about the market as traders come to take the fish from the farmers' door,” said Shobhanath Bhusal of Badaiyatal, Jagatpur.

Though the production has been good so far, seasonal diseases remain a major challenge for the farmers.

“We don’t have a treatment facility, if the disease spreads,” Bhusal said.

The Badaiyatal Rural Municipality produces about 1,320 tonnes of fish annually.