Economics of Fish Production in Bharatpur District, Rajasthan, India

Abstract

Fish culture in Rajasthan is a promising sector and the potential for growth in the state is still far from exhaustion. Among the 32 districts of this state, Bharatpur has good potential for fish culture. The present study is based on a cross-sectional primary data collected from 60 farmers from this district through random sampling method under two different categories viz., farmers having own ponds (n=30) and farmers with leased ponds (n=30). Besides, analysis was carried out in small sized (<1 ha) and large sized farms (>1 ha) for both categories for a better understanding of production economics. The study indicated that fish farmers followed a low input based traditional type of fish farming. Higher average cost per ha was observed in smaller farm size (< 1 ha) for both owned and leased ponds. It was observed to be Rs. 57 129 and Rs. 65 774 for owned and leased small ponds against Rs. 46 194 and Rs. 24 950 for owned and leased large ponds. Level of productivity also followed a similar trend and it was higher in smaller ponds for both owned (2 538 kg ha-1 yr-1) and leased ponds (2 270 kg ha-1 yr-1) against the productivity of large ponds (1 230 kg ha-1 yr-1and 1 568 kg ha-1 yr-1 for owned and leased ponds respectively). Benefit cost ratio (BCR) was found to be 2.19 and 2.28 for owned and leased ponds respectively. BCR was higher in small owned ponds (2.34) when compared to small leased ponds (2.12). In the case of large sized ponds, it was higher in leased ponds (2.71) against owned ponds (2.00).