Identifying Socio-Economic Features of Fish Farmers

A study of the socioeconomic conditions is a prerequisite for the suitable design and successful implementation of any project, training, demonstration or Governments’ developmental programmes. The present study was conducted to assess the socioeconomic characteristics namely education, employment, income levels from aquaculture and other farm and nonfarm activities of fish farmers of Jammu district, along with status of fish farming and livelihood of fish farmer. The numbers of fish farmers have been increasing due to awareness, fish demand and market price and different encouraging Govt. schemes. Data were collected with the help of well-structured questionnaire from the selected farmers of district Jammu was selected purposively for the study. The findings of the study showed that the majority of fish farmers are in middle age group, education up to middle level, medium family size with sufficient experience in aquaculture. They have medium level of social participation, smaller pond size with single ownership and low level of family income. These socio-economic characteristics of fish farmers must be taken into consideration while formulating, designing and implementing developmental programmes.