Introduction

The Government of Nepal gives priority on food security and poverty alleviation through developing various sectors of agriculture including fisheries and aquaculture. Nepal is an agricultural country having 66 percent people directly engaged in farming. Aquaculture and fishery is one of the fastest growing agriculture subsectors in Nepal. The current total national fish production is 113,736 Mt of which 20 % is contributed by capture fisheries while 80% is from aquaculture. Fisheries sector contributes about 1.83% in Agricultural Gross Domestic Production and 0.44% in Gross Domestic Production. History of Nepalese aquaculture is very short however; catching fish from nature is being practiced since ancient time. At present, the availability of fish in least developed country is 11 kg but in Nepal, it has very low 3.9 kg. However, fish as a protein-rich food is acceptable to every level of the population. Domestically produced supplies of fish are primarily from simple traditional capture fisheries in rivers and lakes 21000 Mt and fish culture in the private and governmental sector 92,736 Mt. Thus, the production of fish in Nepal is still at a very low level, being very rich in water resources.

In Nepal, aquaculture development was institutionalized in 2003 BS by establishing fisheries unit under Agricultural Council. This fisheries unit faced several phases of organizational modification time to time passing through the golden era of fisheries, in terms of organizational strength, when department of fisheries was established. The country has magnificent potential for the development of aquaculture. Nepal is rich in fish diversity. The richness and uniqueness of the fresh water fishes of Nepal are due to different topographic and climatic conditions of the country within a short distance of elevation from plain Terai to high altitude mountains as well as tropical to alpine climatic conditions. Nepal is rich in natural resources and it is second richest having highly potential in term of water resources.

There are more than 6000 rivers and rivulets including big and small. There are three major river systems in Nepal namely Koshi, Gandaki and Karnali that along with other rivers and scores of lakes (5358) and reservoirs are the habitat of 252 native species of fish from different climatic zones. There are 9 species of Crabs, 3 species of Prawns, 50 species of Mollusks, 53 species of Frogs, 47 species of Reptiles, 193 species of Water birds and 84 species of Aquatic plants. Water resources are abundant throughout the country in the form of snow covers, rivers and streams, lakes, marginal swamps and groundwater.