Narayan Roy, a resident of Singimari Bhaganiya village under Goroimari block in Kamrup district has set an example for many poor farmers adopting the technology of cage fishing which is totally new to the region. He is one of those forward looking and progressive minded farmers who came forward to testify this technology in a circumstance when most of the farmers were skeptical and doubtful about the success of this technology.Admiring the help and technological knowledge received from Local Service Providers Fazlul Hoque Ahmed (LSP-fishery), Radhagovinda Biswas and Bhuban Biswas, Narayan Roy says that adoption of this technology has earned him both honour and higher income.

People both from his own village and neighboring villages meets him to learn about cage fishery and to know the progress and prospect of this new technique. Having five members in his family; two sons, one daughter-in-law and his wife, it was quite hard for Narayan to meet the both ends as farming was the sole source of income and traditional techniques and low quality inputs in cultivation resulted in low production. Though he has two adult sons, they seldom help him in the field and unfortunately they are not engaged in other activities also. As a result, the responsibility of running the family falls on the shoulder of Narayan. So, he was in search of another source of income.

The Cross border project, in Narayan’s word opened a golden chance of having a new source of income. He embraced the cage fishery scheme to try his luck amidst a doubtful situation. He along with nine other members of Kalia Bhomora Group after receiving training in Cage Fishery from Fazlul Hoque Ahmed proceeded in preparing structures for cages in the river Kolohi that flows by their village. It costs 3810 INR to prepare one cage and Narayan released 4 kilos fish fingerlings of indigenous carps. In the month of October he sold 5.5 kilos of fish for Rs. 1000 and consumed 1 kilo fish. Then he harvested another 7 kilos of fish and sold for Rs. 1500. Before the Magh Bihu festival, which is one of the biggest festival in Assam the price of fish are usually hiked. During this time, i.e. in the midst of January he harvested once more and got 1100 INR.

Mr. Roy has also received 15 no. of fruit saplings from the project side. He has already started selling papayas (red lady variety). In addition to these, Narayan cultivated paddy following the SRI technique after receiving training and motivation from LSP Radhagovinda Biswas. He got 200 kg more paddy this time after following SRI technique. He also adopted other types of technologies like multilayer vegetable cultivation, composting etc.Though this farmer had a desire to cultivate profitable vegetables like chilly and bittergourd, he could not arrange capital to do the same. But after the cage fishery harvesting and selling the increased paddy and papayas, now he is cultivating chilly, coriander, mustard, bottle gourd, bittergourd (multi-layer cultivation). The monetary support he got from the Cross border project against fruit saplings, and fingerlings also helped him lot. He also says that he used improved variety seeds supplied by LSPs.