Boom and bust in Andhra Pradesh: Development and transformation in India's domestic aquaculture value chain

Abstract

India is the world's second largest producer of farmed fish, and the state of Andhra Pradesh (AP) is by far the most important producer of farmed fish in India. Freshwater aquaculture has boomed in AP since the late 1970s, first with carps, then pangasius catfish. Over this period fish pond area and farmed fish production grew from nothing to reach 142,000 ha and 1.5 million tons, respectively. Despite its scale and dramatic consequences, the boom has received little attention in the international literature. The present paper addresses this gap by analyzing changes in the structure and conduct of each segment of AP's freshwater aquaculture value chain during four distinct phases of development (incubation, take-off, maturation and modernization). This analysis reveals that aquaculture development in AP shares many characteristics with agricultural commodity booms elsewhere in Asia. The paper contributes to the literature on crop booms by: 1) characterizing Southern domestic demand for agricultural products as an important but overlooked driver of agrarian development, and; 2) identifying interlinked processes of innovation and transformation in off-farm segments of the supply chain as a central feature of crop booms.