Indigenous Technical Knowledge (ITK) of fish farmers at Dhalai district of Tripura, NE India

Abstract

<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family: " times="" new="" roman";mso-fareast-font-family:"times="" roman";mso-bidi-font-family:="" mangal;mso-ansi-language:en-gb;mso-fareast-language:en-us;mso-bidi-language:="" hi;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"="" lang="EN-GB">Fisheries in Tripura<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:" times="" new="" roman";mso-fareast-font-family:="" "times="" roman";mso-bidi-font-family:mangal;mso-ansi-language:en-gb;="" mso-fareast-language:en-us;mso-bidi-language:hi"="" lang="EN-GB"> form an integral part of the economy of the state. Indigenous technical knowledge in the field of fish farming is a practical knowledge of the local farmers of this district. This is based on intimate experience accumulated over generation after generation. Such traditional practices were sustainable in terms of land use, utilization of local available materials, labour, money, and could be easily operated without any specially skills. The study was conducted in the villages of Balaram and Maracherra clusters of Dhalai district of Tripura to collect the indigenous technical knowledge in fish based farming system, to <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">characterize and catalogue the available bio-resources in the locality and to protect the IPR issues for future uses. Information was documented by using Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) like observation and discussion. In this study, the traditional knowledge of fish farmers were identified and described on integration of animal and plant component in fish based farming system, protection of fishes from enemies, ponds used for the protection of bamboo from damage and fishing methods. The ITKs on<i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"> </i>fish-cum-vegetable (bottle gourd) culture<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">, paddy-cum-fish culture,<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> fish-cum-duckery, <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">practice of protection of fishes from enemies, ponds used for the protection of bamboo from damage, and different types of bamboo made fishing traps were recorded in the present paper.</span></span></span></span></span></span>