Technical Efficiency of Fish Catch in Traditional Fishing: A Study in Southern Assam

This paper has measured technical efficiency of fish catch among traditional fishermen settled in the vicinity of the Sone Beel in Karimganj district of Assam. The Sone Beel is the largest wet land and catchment area of North-eastern India. Two fishing methods are commonly observed in the Sone Beel – single boats accompanied by two or three catchers and paired boats with six to eight catchers. A stochastic production frontier with inefficiency effects is estimated on the basis of cross-sectional data on fishing inputs and value of catch of a sample of 149 single boat using fishing teams. Selected non-input socioeconomic variables such as experience, education and non-fishing income of fishermen are hypothesized to explain team level technical efficiency. The mean technical efficiency is estimated around 68 percent. Experience in fishing is found to have a positive influence on technical efficiency while formal education and income from other sources are found to have depressing effects on the same.