Punjab has a fisheries sector built on ponds rather than rivers, concentrated in the south-western districts where waterlogged and saline land is unsuitable for crops.
Turning a waterlogged field into a fish pond is one of the few genuinely successful land use conversions in Punjab, and it produces higher returns per hectare than grain.
Carp species dominate, with shrimp farming in the saline belt of Muktsar and Fazilka since the 2010s, which is unusual for a state six hundred kilometres from the sea.
Village ponds were traditionally fished and stocked and most now cannot support fish because of sewage.
The river fisheries of the Sutlej, Beas and Ravi have declined with flow and pollution. The mahseer and other river species are much reduced and there is no systematic monitoring.
The department leases village ponds for fish culture and the income goes to the panchayat, which makes it one of the few common resources in a Punjab village that still produces a common income.
The saline and waterlogged belt of the south west is where shrimp has been pushed hardest, because the water there is useless for anything else. Yields have been good and the market is entirely outside the state.
Fish consumption within Punjab is low compared with most of India, so nearly all of the production is sold to buyers in other states, most of it going east.