Success of cage farming of marine finfishes in doubling farmers’ income: a techno-social impact analysis

Abstract

In Andhra Pradesh, India, the culture of marine finfishes such as Indian pompano and Asian seabass has been demonstrated in cages in Krishna and Godavari backwaters by the Regional Centre, ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (ICAR-CMFRI), Visakhapatnam, involving fishermen and marginal landless aqua farmers. Open sea cage culture of orange-spotted grouper and Indian pompano has also been demonstrated in Visakhapatnam, Srikakulam and East Godavari districts of Andhra Pradesh. From the 14 success stories documented, enhancement in net income in the range 50.32%– 257.14% was evident by transforming people from different avocations such as agriculturists, wage earners in agriculture and allied sectors, business professionals, fish traders, traditional fish farmers and artisanal fishers to marine finfish farming. The benefit ratio of cage farming among the adopted farmers was found to be 1.33 and 1.31 for estuarine and marine cages respectively. The impact was realized on livelihood enhancement due to the technological interventions of cage culture under the technological, social and economic dimensions. cage culture, access to raw materials for cage construction, timely availability of seeds and feed, availability of labour-ers, access to market and remunerative price for the harvest, technical knowhow/timely advisories, Government support/ subsidies/schemes, access to institutional finance, transpor-tation and logistics, storage availability and support from the peer group.