Potentiality of Fishery Towards ITS Sustainable Production and Marketing-A Case Study in Manipur Saikhom

In India, fishery sector provides important source of livelihood for a large section of economically backward populations. India ranks second in the world with the production of 7845161 tonnes (Anonym 2009) contributing 5.43% to the global total fish production. From the North-East India, Manipur is the third largest Inland fish production (22, 200 tones, 2011–2012). However, marketing of these products is very necessary as they are raw and perishable in nature. So, for analyzing the marketing system a total of 100 sample fish farmers were selected randomly from Imphal-West district of Manipur. The sample farmers were categorized in two groups according to their allocation of area under fish farming as category I (large having ≥1 ha) and category II (small having <1ha). On an average overall farm, marketable surplus of 1361.51 kg (94.7% to the total production) and marketed surplus of 1342.01 kg (94.18%) are estimated. The price spread of fish through different marketing channels revealed that the percentage of Producer's share in Consumer's rupee was highest in channel III (98.18%) followed by channel II (86.25%). Lack of cold storage, less training facilities relating to new technology, etc., are some of the major constraints faced by the fish farmers.