SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND PRODUCTION CHARACTERISTICS OF PACIFIC WHITE SHRIMP, LITOPENAEUS VANNAMEI (BOONE, 1931) CULTURE IN PURBA MEDINIPUR, WEST BENGAL, INDIA

Anupam Maiti 1 , Deep Sankar Chini 1 , Manojit Bhattacharya 1 , Avijit kar 1 , Amalesh Bera 1 , Tapas Kumar Dutta 2 , Utpal Kumar Sar 3 and Bidhan Chandra Patra 1 . 1. Centre for Aquaculture Research, Extension and Livelihood, Department of Aquaculture Management and Technology, Vidyasagar University, Midnapore, West Bengal 721 102, India. 2. Department of Zoology, Bankura Sammilani College, Bankura, West Bengal 722102, India. 3. Directorate of Fisheries, Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar Administration, India. ...................................................................................................................... Manuscript Info Abstract ......................... ........................................................................ Manuscript History Received: 15 April 2019 Final Accepted: 17 May 2019 Published: June 2019


Introduction:-
Crustacean aquaculture has been grown up very rapidly in last few years where its annual production reached about 5 million tons in the year of 2006 (Jaspe, Caipang et al. 2011). Penaeid shrimps are the preferred crustaceans in aquaculture and vast area are invested for shrimp farming (Karuppasamy and Mathivanan 2013) because of high demand of it all over the world. India ranks second in comparison to China in shrimp production (Ravuru and Mude 2014). The recent trend shows a considerable increase of farming of L. vannamei replacing P. monodon culture due to their high growth rate, short culture duration and higher resistance to diseases (Seidman and Lawrence, 1985). As per supplied data of District Agriculture Department, Purba Medinipur District, Government of West Bengal and local information, within last few years, the single cropped hectors after hectors paddy land of coastal region of this District have converted to brackish water tank for shrimp farming to gain high profit (Patra, Mishra et al. 2016).
Declining trends of employment in government and private sectors coupled with less income from agricultural crops has forced the unemployed youth to brackish water farming. The objectives of the study were to assess the socioeconomical status of fisher-folk community and production characteristics of L. vannamei culture ultimately the profit which influences the life style, health consciousness and others. This study will help to formulate the policies and its implementation by appropriate extension, intervention to cope up with the present field level constraints, standardization of the optimum sustainable culture /management protocol.

Material and methods:-Study Area:
The study was conducted in four sub-divisions, viz. Contai, Egra, Tamluk and Haldia in the Purba Medinipur District of West Bengal, India, which is located in between 21 0 91'29''N to 22 0 18'65''N latitude and 87 0 76'33''E to 87 0 83'37''E longitude. Before starting the survey total study areas are divided into four zones as per sub-division of this District up to the Community Development Block level.

Variables and their measurement:
For complete study the main twenty eight parameters were identified. Among the major techno-managerial variables such as culture area, stocking, inputs used, production and income were calculated based on water spread area. Net profit was calculated on total farm area. One cycle represents the periods from pond preparation to final harvest and drainage out of pond water. All the variables are calculated for a cycle period.

Data collection:
The tools and techniques followed by semi-structured interview and documents review (Goswami et al.1994;Shiyani and Pandya 1998); questionnaire survey, focus group discussion (Holloway 1997) and Participatory Rural Appraisal (Chambers 1992;Conway 1987) were used to get the complete information from the people who are involved with L.vannamei culture. Such types of tools were also adopted by Ghosh et al, 2015 who applied these at same state for fresh water prawn production. The questionnaires were prepared in local language i.e. Bengali and then it is translated into English and tabulated at the appropriate column. The techno-managerial parameters were studied at weekly basis at the farms of the some focused groups during this period.
The present study was carried out for a period of eight to nine months per year for consecutive two years for better accuracy of the results. The socio-economic condition and life style are directly related with the income of the farmers, and the income varies on different issues. The study was mainly conducted during culture periods i.e. from February to October, 2015 and in the year 2016 for the same periods. The primary data regarding various aspects of socio-economic condition of fisher folk community who were involved in this trade both permanently and partially were collected considering their primary income source and secondary income source respectively. In this study open-ended questions derived the answers from area of farm, amount of feed, seed, fertilizer, minerals, Probiotics used, production , harvested weight of animals and selling rates which are essential for deriving production cost and profit. During study some important photo graphs and videos were taken which are closely associated with the study. Some important advices were given to them when they faced the emergency technical problem and tested the important soil and water parameters of farms regarding their culture. In this way confidence were built up to make easy to get their information regarding their profit or loss and others.

Result and Discussions:-
Some of the major determinants influence the socio-economic status and life style of the fisher folk community directly or indirectly. The interview schedule which acts as the tool to measure the composition of the determinants. Then the obtained result are analyzed and discussed here one by one to make final conclusion of the study.

Livelihood Activities:
The respondent i.e. brackish water fishermen are basically the paddy cultivator but due to lower percentage of return they shifted to this high risk farming. Majority (60%) of owner respondents have taken the land from agricultural cultivators as lease @ Rs. 50,000.00 to Rs. 60,000.00/acre/year and excavated the individual tanks of area in between 100 decimal to 125decimal per tank. Though for their livelihood hundred percentage of farmer go for one time Aman (July to October) paddy cultivation and very few (10%) of Rabi cultivation (December to March).
The final numbers of respondent are 500 out of which 99% are male and rest are female. Majority are engaged as employee of farm (51.00%) followed by owner of farm (46.00%), very few as owner of farm-cum retailer of inputs (2.20%) & owner of farm -cum Adhatdar (local buyer i.e. 0.80%) . In this regard it is to be mentioned that around 60% of the present interviewers are being owner of farm have started this profession as employee to other's farm. And after few years of experience they have started their own business either at their own land or taking lease from others.
During the study period it was found that 87% are L.vannamei , 5.6% are Tiger shrimp and rest 7.4% are of both species (Table-01).The experience of farming in between 4 to 14 years has replied the majority (78.00%) of people where as very few (0.4%) of above 14 years. The maximum numbers of people are of medium experienced category comprising middle aged group i.e. 31 to 50 years. The brackish water shrimp farming needs day night management practice and night management is more crucial as the shrimp is nocturnal in habit. As the farmers undergoes semiintensive farming, so they require to feed the P. monodon for four times daily (6am, 10am, 6pm & 10 pm) and aeration just before feeding for 30-40 minutes as initial stage and up to one hour for advance stage for total culture period of 125-135 days and maintain the check tray after 35 days of stocking to till harvest.
On the other hand, for L. vannamei feeding requires five times daily (6am, 10am, 3pm , 7 pm & 11pm) and aeration just before feeding for 30-40 minutes as initial stage and one hour or even more for advance stage during total culture period of 95-105 days. Moreover, it is urgent to maintain the check tray after 35 days of stocking to till harvest. So, in contrast to P. monodon daily fishing efforts is more than L. vannamei. The employees must have stay at the farm throughout the day & night with periodical interval. It is found that 86.20% of respondents have to engage around 14 hrs followed by 10.80% for 10 hrs & very few (03%) for around 6 hrs. The large farm owners engage labour for broadcasting of feed, maintaining check tray, operating pump etc. and manager for accounts related matter, maintaining log book , calculating amount of feed required for each meal and check tray (Table-01).
For the transportation of farming inputs the Table-01 represent the clear picture of the studied respondents. The majority (39.4%) of respondent use two wheelers followed by rickshaw fitted with engine (30.2%) and other means are comparatively with less percentage. In order to measure the economical status of each family depending on L.vannamei farming, criteria likecultivated area, annual income, total investment,marketing and credit system are considered as key determinants. In respect to total farm area or cultivated area, Haldia Sub-division ranked first among the four Sub-divisions. In Contai subdivision the large number of farmers are involved with less total farm area ranging from 1 acre to 2.5 acre. The observed result depicted that 77.60% farmer posses area in between 01 acre to 05 acres, 16% farmer up to 01 acre and 6.40% farmer above 05 acres [ Table-02].
Besides, such types of fish farming everybody mandatorily cultivate paddy, horticultural crop & even fresh water fish, except a few families prefer cattle and chicken rearing. During lean period the labour or small farmer went to the different states for temporary works. That's why their total annual family income includes the above. Though their income directly depends upon the amount of production as well as demands and rate at the international markets.
The lowest incomes groups of up to Rs. The other scenario concerns, purchasing of feed, aqua-medicines and others by cash is more profitable than other means as cash purchase gives concession on MRP of around 5% to 10 % on feed and even up to 25 % -30% on aqua-medicines. In earlier discussion we have seen that middleman mainly retailers and buyers is the main controller of this trade. About 89.40% respondents opined that middlemen are involved highly by means of pond preparation to sell of product. At every steps of culture technical knowledge about the new species is very much essential for higher production and prevention of diseases. Respondents reply that marketing of this type of crop at any weight is totally controlled by the 10-15 numbers of major buyers throughout the district. The producer bound to sell their crop to them after little bit bargaining. The buyers after taking crop from farmers they maintain post harvest techniques to avoid any deterioration of quality. The buyers directly sell the harvested crop to processing plants as per gradation system. Then the foreign exporters purchased from processors. This is a brief account of the said crop marketing system. After receiving the value of crops 88.6% does not keep it safe rather they expend it for purchasing motor bike, land, ornaments, maintaining house, rituals, nourishment, education etc. Few person (11.4%) can deposit the money at any bank for future investment [  During study period medium sized family with 06 to 08 members is highest in percentage (80.80%) in comparison to small sized family (16.80%) and big sized family (2.40%). Similar type of observation was also reported by Kalita and Deka, (2015).
Majority of respondents (97.80%) have maintained proper age of marriage while rest undergone child marriage especially in case of girls. Due to positive impact of education these societies have no strictness as well as conservativeness about inter caste marriage, but they generally prefer marriage between same castes. The respondent (97.40%) replied that they do not accept dowry in terms of cash but they do not refuse the gifts from bridal side. The result shows that 94.6 % of the participants watch TV for news, movies, popular evening programme and 5.4% respondents read news paper. Among the respondents 9.60 % are directly involved at the politics whereas 38.60% are involved indirectly. The rests have no interest except casting their vote [ Table-03].

Conclusions:-
The studies clearly indicate that various problems of farmers can be solved with the help of field level stakeholders if they emphasize on concerned people's livelihood. Furthermore, resources like human, water, land can be utilized in a sustainable ways for better improvement of socio-economic status and livelihood of fisher folk community associated with brackish water farming at Purba Medinipur, West Bengal. All farmers raised their demands and also the researchers have the same view after minute observation i.e. proper training about culture & management practice of the species, disease prevention and control, availability of certified specific pathogen free (SPF) seed, control of Government on rate and quality of feed, fertilizers, medicine etc. and other necessary requirements, laboratory for soil, water and disease testing, cold storage for crop at the time of low selling rate, more involvement of financial institutes, control of Government over the intervention of middleman at every step of this system, proper infrastructure for entertainment and awareness to eradicate the deadly addiction. Enlistment in the insurance scheme like agricultural insurance to encourage and support their livelihood, upliftment of family members of the farmer is very much urgent in tune with life style, education, health progress. Consistent with this development of infrastructure in their villages is thought to be another prime factor for encompassing the socio-economy, over all development is required if the farmer can alleviate the poverty through L.vannamei culture by means of earning money.