Fish Farming as an Alternative Source of Livelihood in North Eastern Region of India: An Empirical Study of Arunachal Pradesh

Agriculture is the predominant sector in Arunachal Pradesh, the eastern most State of India, with more than 60 per cent of workforce engaged in agricultural and allied activities. Given the hilly topography (only around five per cent land is available for cultivation) and continuing dominance of low productive 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 livelihood options in the inland fisheries of Arunachal Pradesh. The study is based on both secondary data and primary data. Primary data is collected from 300 sampled fish farmers of the State by applying multistage sampling technique.