Adoption Gap in Scientific Fish Production Practices Among Fish Farmers in Tripura

Abstract

Aquaculture is an important economic activity in Tripura, both from an economic and nutritional point of view. The current level of fish production in the state is not able to meet the burgeoning demand and hence large amount of fish is being brought from other states of India. Therefore to identify the adoption gap of improved production practices of carp among the farmers, this study was conducted out using ex-post facto research design in the purposively selected districts of South Tripura and West Tripura. Total two hundred fish farmers were seleeted for the study. The overall adoption index in the study area was found 59.74. Non adoption was more in five practices such as the use of aerators, feeding, liming, water exchange and quality monitoring and stocking. Majority of the fish farmers (20%) practiced the 5 species ratio of rohu+catla+mrigal+common carp+silver carp on the average ratio of 26.72:23.45:14.28:18.45:17.1. Non adoption was more observed in use of aerators (54.25%) to control the oxygen deficiency in the pond. This was followed by supplementary feeding (51.15%), liming (43.31%), water exchange and quality monitoring (40.37%) and stocking (39.65%). The adoption score and index were not encouraging as both were low, which suggests that there are a lot of scope for extension system with regard to empowering the farmers educationally. Farmers may be encouraged for formation of farmer-group.