Economic analysis of producers’ perceptions about impact of climate change on fisheries in West Bengal

Abstract

This paper has looked at the social vulnerability of fishermen to climate change and the extent of adaptation strategies in response to climate change. It has sought insights as perceived effects based on farm household survey in Coochbehar district of West Bengal during the year 2009. Simple random sampling was used to select eighty respondents for descriptive as well as tabular analysis. The majority of farmers are small and medium. Thirty per cent of them take up fishery as primary occupation. Nearly eighty per cent are actively involved in production activities by providing labour force inter alia in other agricultural operations. Income from fishery ranges from `12,000 to `16,000 per acre per year. About forty-eight per cent have low level of awareness about climate change and its economic impacts on fishery. Fifty per cent of the fishers have negative perception about the effect of climate change to fish production. Only twenty-two per cent show positive approach to adopt different strategies aiming to reduce adverse effect of climate change. Ranking of negative perceived effect has also been done. The young and educated fishers assume climate change to be a serious issue which has been confirmed with a positive relation between awareness and perceived effects of climate change. The respondents who perceived negative effects of climate change are more prone to adopt strategies to cope up with the climate change. To address the constraints being experienced by the respondents, the study has made some suggestions which include resource allocation and adoption of mitigation measures, adaptive measures and rural development measures to reduce the impact of climate change on fish population.