Eco. Env. & Cons. 20 (Suppl.) : 2014; pp. (S297-S301) Copyright@ EM International ISSN 0971–765X Article-53 *Corresponding author’s email: surjya30740@gmail.com Comparative economic analysis of pond aquaculture with and without cage Surjya Narayan Datta * , Asha Dhawan, Sachin Kumar, Pranaya Parida and Kulwinder Kaur College of Fisheries, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana 141 004, Punjab, India (Received 29 May, 2014; accepted 30 June, 2014) ABSTRACT Comparative study was conducted to evaluate the economic benefit of pond aquaculture with and without cage. Channa punctata was stocked in cages where as carps were stocked in ponds. C. punctata in the cages were fed with chicken waste (with crude protein of 63.04%) @ 2% of body weight and the carps in pond were not provided any supplementary diet. However carps in pond, without cage, were fed with supplementary diet (with crude protein of 26.92%) @ of 1% of body weight. In addition to C. punctata reared in cages the growth of carps was 13.93% higher in pond with cage as compared to pond without cage. The pond cage aquaculture provides 32.12% of additional gross income in comparison to the pond without cage. The utilization of slaughter house waste helps in waste utilization, improvement of environment and reduces the feed cost. Pond cage aquaculture shows the avenue of maximization of income from the same unit of water body. Key words: Cage Aquaculture, Economics, Channa punctata, Carps Introduction Intensification in aquaculture is required to meet the demand and supply dynamics in a sustainable man- ner. Cage aqua farming is the most predominant form of freshwater aquaculture in Asia (Phillips and De Silva, 2006). Cages are generally installed in large water bodies to rear fry/ fingerling for ranch- ing. Cage fish culture originated in the Yangtze River delta in China about 750 years ago (Hu, 1994) and has long been practiced in Southeast Asia (Ling, 1977). Culture of high value species in cages in large ponds can increase the production and productivity of fish hence more income per unit area. In pond cage aquaculture only fish in cages are fed high-pro- tein diet, while fish in pond depend on unfed feed and excreta of fish reared in cages (Yi and Lin, 2000). The integrated pond cage has been developed by Lin et al., (1990) and practiced for catfish-tilapia (Lin et al., 1990; Lin, 1990) and for tilapia-tilapia (Mc- Ginty, 1991; Yi et al., 1996) to reuses wastes derived from caged fish as a valuable resource to generate natural food for culture of filter-feeding species. In India, freshwater aquaculture is mainly carp based, which are low value species as compared to other high value freshwater species like murrels, catfish etc. relished by consumers especially in non-coastal states of the country. The spotted snakehead Channa punctata (Bloch), a freshwater murrel, is a high value species and is known for its flavor and taste, high nutritive value and medicinal qualities (Haniffa et al., 2004) and is recommended as a diet during con- valescence (Chakrabarty, 2006). It is a hardy species and is suitable for cage aquaculture. The integration of pond cage aquaculture of high value fishes may provide more benefit to the farmers.