Changing Research Paradigms in Aquaculture Economics — A Review

Aquaculture economics is still in its infancy, even though literature on the subject has grown in tandem with the volume of business and attention received by the species cultured, consumed and traded which include importantly shrimp, catfish, salmon and trout. With a distinct shift in the trend of fish production within aquaculture and capture fisheries, new constraints have cropped up in the fisheries sector. In spite of these constraints, innovations in fisheries have come up; for example, low input livelihood aquaculture systems, sustainable and ecological aquaculture, etc. in many parts of the world. These have a definite bearing on the long-run payoffs from small-scale aquaculture. Moreover, freshwater aquaculture in tropical countries has been found to be economically viable as a farm diversification strategy and as an independent commercial activity, turning our attention on bio-economic modelling. Cross-price effects of seafood products and aquaculture products, effects of trade and non-trade barriers on aquaculture products, potential conflicts between the development of aquaculture for export and aquaculture for subsistence consumption are the other serious concerns that need to be addressed. With the ever-increasing demand for seafood in the international market, more research on demand-elasticities and its analysis would be appropriate, especially in the Indian context for the evaluation of the current status and prediction of future scenario of fisheries. Evaluation of the prevalent aquaculture technologies can be strengthened by specific farm technical-efficiency studies, which is another area that demands attention in the Indian aquaculture economics research. To address such leads and lags, fisheries economists in the country need to take up these challenges by having real time field exposure to different segments of aquaculture.