Resource Productivity Potential of Urban Sewage-fed Aquaculture: A comparative Economics of Fresh Water and Effluent Water Aquaculture in West Bengal

The net return of effluent water fish production farmers was higher by Rs.1933.53 per acre over fresh water fish production farmers. The return per rupee of investment of fresh water fish production was Rs.1.64 and among effluent water fish production farmers it was almost same at Rs.1.67. The analysis of resource productivity indicated that in both fresh water fish production and effluent water fish production, fish seed, area, and labour had greater influence on gross returns. Further, it was found that fish seed and labour were under used by fresh water fish production farmers where as fish seed, labour and area were under used by effluent water fish production farmers. Producer share in the consumer price was 92.25, 89.25 and 79.41 percent in channel-I, channel-II and channel-III, respectively. The main constraints faced by the farmers were high cost coupled with inadequate quality fingerlings, inadequate loan facility, risk in marketing and high cost in fish catch. The study better revealed that the effluent water fish production farmers had higher economic efficiency than the other group.