Against The Current: Pawan Shah's Inspiring Transition From Electrical Engineer To A Successful Fisherman

Akhilesh Shukla

Shahdol: Pawan Kumar Shah never thought about setting up a fish farm until circumstances compelled him to do so. A resident of Ramnagar Dola Municipal Council in Anuppur, Pawan studied electrical engineering and worked as an engineer in Bhopal for two years when Covid broke out in 2019 and the lockdown forced him to return home.

This marked a turning point in his life. Faced with a crisis, Pawan decided to try his hand in fish farming and began a startup. His new venture started paying huge dividends after some time and he started earning lakhs of rupees through fish farming. It completed his journey from being an electrical engineer to becoming a flourishing fisherman. Pawan is quite happy about this turnaround in his life.

The COVID-19 lockdown destroyed many but it opened up new opportunities for others like Pawan. With Covid raging, mobility was restricted and trains were halted in most parts of the country. This prevented him from returning to his workplace.

Pawan recalled having an aquarium at home and he enjoyed watching the fish swimming. Also in his hometown he will often watch the ponds and fish swimming in it. Pawan decided to start his new startup around a fish farm and he started working on it. But he had no land, no fish pond. After much thought he formulated a plan to start a fish farming startup, but the biggest problem was where to do it. He approached the Ramnagar Dola Municipal Council and wanted to take on lease a closed coal mine from the government and start fish farming using the water from this mine.

This is how Pawan’s new journey began. The biggest challenge in starting any new startup was finding a market. Fisherman Pawan said this was a serious concern and when he spoke to traders in the market, they were demanding exorbitant rates. They weren't willing to buy more than 70-80 rupees a kg. Pawan worked on a plan and examined the local market where people used to buy fish 10 to 15 days old. So he decided that if he supplied live fish, more people would be attracted to it. It should give good results, he thought and worked in that direction.

"The challenge was how to transport live fish to the market. No one was buying fish from us. So we had an eco-vehicle, and we built a tank in it. We took it to the market and started making live fish available to people. This attracted many customers. When the local traders saw this, they offered us a proposal: Stay at your farm and give us your fish. We will sell them. They also felt that selling live, fresh fish was better than selling old fish, as there was a high demand for it in the market. Gradually, we established contacts with those traders," he said.

Pawan said they started buying at reasonable prices, and the market grew. “Now we have businesses in Manendragarh, Bijuri, Rajnagar. Furthermore, if there are any surpluses, they are also sent to Bilaspur and Raipur in Chhattisgarh. They are also sending fish to Uttar Pradesh," he added.

But Pawan recalled success was not without challenges. There were initial hiccups and difficulties starting operations. Since everything was in the open, they incurred significant losses because the fish were stolen. They suffered losses for one year.

The next year, they decided to apply for cage farming culture. They applied for the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Yojana (Prime Minister's Fisheries Scheme), which allotted them 24 cages, with a 40% subsidy. Within one to two years, they began seeing such good results that they began expanding the number of cages. Now, they are moving forward at a steady pace, working continuously and the number of cages is also increasing.

Fisherman Pawan Kumar Shah explained how he started this fish farming startup in 2020, during the height of the pandemic. It's been five years now. His business continues to grow. He's also started several other ventures alongside it. Now, he earns Rs. 3 to Rs 4 lakh annually. Production fluctuates year to year. Most importantly, it also provides employment to some people. At least six people are directly employed while about 25 are indirectly benefited out of the venture.

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