Blessed with glacier-fed and oxygen rich streams, Jammu and Kashmir has immense potential to undertake trout breeding on a national scale. It is great to know that the J & K Government has been successful in making the Union Territory the top trout producer among the country’s cold-water regions.

Official figures state that trout output increased from 1663 tonnes in 2021-22 to a record 2650 tonnes in 2024-25. Besides private sector trout units increased from 936 to 1649, hatcheries from one to nine, trout feed mills from zero to six by 2024, Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) units from two to nine; and biofloc units from 10 to 59 respectively. Under Holistic Agriculture Development Programme (HADP), launched in 2022, Rs. 233 crore was allocated for fisheries to incentivise entrepreneurship, establish hatcheries, trout farming, and value-added ventures. And this has paid dividends by increasing fish production.

Trout rearing has come a long way in J&K. The process started in 1899 when the first batch of trout ova of 10,000 eggs was imported from the United Kingdom by the Duke of Bedford but the ova could not survive. On December 19, 1900, the second shipment of trout ova arrived in Kashmir from Scotland on December 19, 1900. Out of 1800 fry, 1000 were transferred to Panzagam Dachigam and rest were reared in premises of a private carpet factory at Baghi Dilawar Khan. Subsequently Mother Trout Fish Farming Project was set up in Kokernag area in south Kashmir under European Union........

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