IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF FISHERIES DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES IN CHATTISGARH ON FISH FARMERS’ LIVELIHOOD

Chhattisgarh is the 6^th largest fish producing state with a total fish production of 3.422 lakh tonnes. In Chhattisgarh, fisheries development programmes are implemented through State and Central plans. Fisheries development programmes are playing very important role in increasing the fish production of the state, thus a study was conducted to analyze the impact of fisheries development programmes on livelihood of fish farmers. A total of 120 beneficiaries were selected from 4 blocks of Raipur district (Tilda, Abhanpur, Dharsiwa, and Arang). Data was collected using interview schedule and impact was studied for five livelihood capitals using before-after scores. Appropriate statistical tests were performed to test the difference between the scores. Study has revealed that fish farmers have benefited from these fisheries development programmes reporting improvements on all livelihood capitals. Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test revealed a significant difference between before-after scores for all livelihood capitals at 5% level of significance and physical capital showed 39.69% change in the scores. This was followed by natural capital (37.20%), financial capital (29.64%), human capital (25.83%) and social capital (24.58%). It can thus be concluded that there is improvement due to fisheries development programs on all livelihood capitals for fish farmers.