What inspired you to embark on a career in aquaculture?

I was into agriculture and used to grow cardamom until 2012. The income was limited as the crop didn’t yield much profit. The fisheries department was actively promoting rainbow trout farming and was looking for farmers who were interested in it. I contacted them and they trained me in fish farming, gave me Rs 50,000 ($611), 2,000 fingerlings and market feed.

Only 300 survived, as I had little knowledge of fish farming and how to feed them, but I still had a profit of around Rs 40,000 ($488) in the first year.