Socio-economic status of fish farmers in selected regions of Uttar Pradesh

Present investigation was carried out in the four regions of Uttar Pradesh to assess the socio-economic status of fish farmers. Following stratified random sampling method, a district was selected from each region and 159 farmers were randomly selected for age, education, caste, household amenities, social participation, employment, income levels from fish farming and other farm and nonfarm activities of Uttar Pradesh. A novel tool called as socio-economic status (SES) index that measures social and economic aspects was developed and utilized. The study revealed that majority of the fish farmers (79.2%) were falling under medium SES of whom nearly two-third had the score above 6. Majority of fish farmers were in middle age group, education up to middle level, bigger family size, with income level varied between 1 to 2 lakh, having smaller land holding with an average pond size of 0.55 ha. Total household income of respondents was not significantly varying across the 4 districts. Majority of the respondents had better housing facilities, had a medium level of social participation and interestingly farmers having higher degree of social participation were more accessible to the public services. However, it was also observed that about 30 per cent of population did not have proper sanitation facility which was not hygienic for a densely populated state. Inspite of increased supply of LPG, nearly 70 per cent of population still using firewood for cooking purpose.