Adoption of small scale coastal cage fish farming in the southwest coast of India: Opportunities and challenges

Abstract

Cage fish farming is an emerging aquaculture technology in India. It is a low impact farming practice with high economic returns. ICAR-CMFRI in India had developed cost effective technologies for cage farming and popularised the technology through front line demonstrations in the marine and coastal waters in the country. We analysed the opportunities and constraints of coastal cage fish farming in Kerala state, in the south west coast of India. Economic indicators of selected farms revealed that cage farming is an economic viable technology in the coastal waters earning an average net profit of USD3, 914 and internal rate of return (IRR) of 68%. Coastal water pollution, inadequate financial capital, climate change impacts, high feed cost and lack of insurance facilities were reported as the major constraints in cage fish farming. The study indicated that cage fish farming has great potential for augmenting fish production and coastal livelihoods and emphasized the need for stringent regulations for mitigating coastal water pollution, institutional linkages for financial inclusion and insurance facilities for upscaling the technology.