Techno economic efficiency of resource use in trawl fishing in Andhra Pradesh-a case study in Kakinada

Fisheries sector in India has transformed from subsistence level to the status of an industry in the \nlast five decades and contributes about 1.4 per cent to the country's GOP. Mechanization of fishing (mainly \ntrawl fishing) is one of the factors responsible for this transformation. Presently about 47,000 mechanized \ncrafts operate in the Indian Exclusive Economic Zone, harvesting the fishery resources in the inshore waters \n(0-50 m depth) and even beyond. In trawl fishing, the fishermen follow different fishing methods like multiday \nor voyage fishing, lasting for about 5 to 12 days to get more catch and hence, income. These methods \nhave not only brought higher catch but also caused the indiscriminate exploitation of commercially important \nfishery resources. This necessitates assessing the technical and economic efficiency of input use in trawl \nfishing to ascertain optimization of resource use, and hence the present study was carried out at Kakinada \nof East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh.