Socio-economic Status of Fish Farmers in Arunachal Pradesh: An Analytical Study

Agriculture is the main source of livelihood for the majority of the people of Arunachal Pradesh, the eastern most State of India, accounting for nearly 32 per cent of NSDP and more than 60 per cent of workers engaged in agricultural activity. Given the hilly topography (only around five per cent land is available for cultivation) and continuing dominance of low productivity shifting cultivation, diversification of agriculture that raises the earnings of those dependent on agriculture remains one of the fundamental challenges. On the other hand the State has untapped potential for fisheries in terms of many rivers, wetlands, ponds, lakes and area under rice-fish culture system. Hence, in this background the present paper makes an in-depth study of socio-economic status of fish farmers in Arunachal Pradesh. The study is based on both secondary data and primary data which is collected from 300 sampled fish farmers of the State by applying multistage sampling technique.