The study of the socio-economic profile of shrimp farmers of Nellore in Andhra Pradesh

and Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu revealed that 40% of the shrimp farmers had collegiate

level of education, and they had medium levels of farming experience, information seeking

behaviour, extension contact~ economic motivation and risk orientation. The resu lts of

correlation analysis revealed that of the seventeen independent variables studied eleven

independent v'ariables had positive and significant relationship with the extent of adoption

of shrimp culture technologies by shrimp farmers of Nellore. Among the shrimp farmers of

Nagapattinam, seven independent variables had positive and significant relationship with

the extent of adoption. The results of step• wise multiple regression analysis revealed that

variables such as information seeking behaviour, credit orientation and material possession

expfained 48(10 of the variation in the extent of adoption by shrimp farmers of Nellore and

variables like extens ion contact, risk orientation, farming experience, type of ownership,

annual income and material possession explained 84 percent of the variation in the extent

of adoption by shrimp farmers of Nagapattinam 

Balasubramani, N

Chandrakandan, K

Kumaran, M

Swathi Lekshmi, P S

CMFRI Digital Repository

Fishery Technology 2005, Vol. 42(2) pp 225 - 230 Socio-Economic Profile of Shrimp Farmers and its Influence on the Extent of Adoption of Shrimp Culture Technologies P.S. Swathi Lekshmi*, K. Chandrakandan**, M. Kumaran*** and N. Balasubramani* Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore - 641 003, India The stud y of the socia-economic profile of shrimp farmers of NelJo re in Andhra Pradesh and Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu revealed that 40% of the shrimp farmers had collegiate level 9£ education, and they had medium levels of farming experience, information seeking behaviour, extension contact~ economic motivation and risk orientation. The resu lts of correlation analysis revealed that of the seventeen independent variables s tudied eleven independent v'ariables had positive and significant relationship with the extent of adoption of shrimp culture technologies by shrimp farmers of Nellore. Among the shrimp farmers of Nagapattinam, seven independent variables had positive and significant relationship with the extent of adoption. The results of step· wise multiple regression analysis revealed that variables such as information seeking behaviour, credit orientation and materia l possession expfained 48(10 of the variation in the extent of adoption by shrimp farmers of Nellore and variables like extens ion contact, risk orientation, farming experience, type of ownership, annual income and material possession explained 84 percent of the variation in the extent of adoption by shrimp farmers of Nagapattinam . . Key words: Shrimp fanners, socio·economic profile, shrimp culture technologies, extent of adoption Socio-economic profile of the shrimp farmers have a direct bearing on the adoption of teclmologies. Social and eco-nomic factors at various levels of social systems form an environment where people interact through roles and relationships defined by age, education, social participa-tion, economic motivation and other socio-economic variables. In the present study, the influence of socio-economic profile of the shrimp farmers in Nellore in Andhra Pradesh and Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu on the extent of technology adoption was studied. Materials and Methods The research work was carried out in Nellore. district of Andhra Pradesh and Nagapattinam district of Tamil Nadu. Out of "PhD Scholars, T.N. Agriculture University, Coimbatore. the th:ee blocks selected in Nellore district, two villages from each block was selected randomly. Employing random sampling procedure 10 Shrimp farmers from each village were selected. With respect to Nagapattinam district, out of the three blocks selected in the district, . two villages from each block was selected randomly. Using random sampling procedure 10 shrimp farmers from each village were selected. Thus the total sample size fixed for the study was 120. The sampling method followed was multi stage random sampling. A total of seventeen independent vari-ables were measured and analysed. These .independent variables were measured by standardised scoring procedures, and the cumulative frequency method was used to **Professor, AgriculturCl J Extension, T.N. Agricultural University, Coimbatore ...... ,.SCientist(SS), Agricultural Extension, Central Institute of Brackish Water Aquaculture, Chennai. 226 LEKSHMI, CHANDRAKANDAN, KUMARAN AND BALASUBRAMANI classify the respondents into three categories namely low, medium and high. The dependant variable studied was the adoption behaviour of the shrimp farmers for selected twelve shrimp farming practices starting from pond preparation till harvest The adoption behaviour was measured using the adoption quotient developed by Balasubrainaniam (1988). Adoption quotient = f{~.xWj} ]=1 J x lOO M I,Wj j = 1 ej = Extent of adoption of jth practice in terms of magnitude Ej = Potentiality for adoption of jth . practice in terms of magnitude wj= Weightage assigned to jth practice M = No. of applicable practices L = Summation Statistical techniques such as percentage analysis, cumulative frequency, correlation analysis and stepwise multiple regression analysis were used for the analysis of data. Results and Discussion Seventeen profile characteristics of shrimp farmers belonging to the two districts of Nellore and Nagapattinam are presented m Table .1. It could be observed from Table 1 that out of the tot.al respondents, 47.50 percent of the shrimp farmers were old, 40.00 percent had collegiate level of education, 63.33 per cent had big farm size, 36.67 per cent had medium level of annual income, 70.00 per ·cent sold their produce to exporters, 56.67 per cent had low level of social participation, 57.50 per cent had medium level of extension contact, 55.83 per cent had medium level of economic motivation, and 84.17 per cent had medium level of credit orientation. Among Nellore farmers, 41.67% had higher second-ary lev.el of education, 60.00 percent sold their produce in the local market, 66.67 percent had low level of social participation, 45.00 percent had medium level of extension contact, 66.67 percent had medium level of economic motivation followed by 45.00 percent with medium level of risk orienta-tion. Among Nagapattinam farmers, it could be inferred that 51.67% had collegiate level of education, 36.67 · percent had medium level of arumal income, and 100.00 percent of the respondents sold their produce to exporters. Most of the shrimp farmers of Nagapattinam (70.00%) had a medium level of extension contact and 68.33 percent had a medium level of risk orientation followed by 93.33 percent with a medium level of credit orientation. It could be observed from Table 2 that the adoption behaviour of the shrimp farmers was high with respect to practices such as harvesting, pond bottom condition-ing, pond bottom sterilization, acclimatisation and stocking of fry, liming of pond, feed management and health management. This finding is in agreement with the findings of Kumaran e/ al (2003) who reported that cent percent of the farmers had adopted pond preparation, stocking of hatchery produced disease checked seed and application of quality pelleted feed practices, as these were a prerequisite for successful culture. The practices such as measurement of soil pH, manure and fertilizer application and water management had accorded come paratively low adoption behaviour. The farmers resort to measurement of soil pH mostly in new farms, and with respect to manure and fertilizer application, correct usage of ammonium sulphate, urea and super phosphate were not observed. As far as water management practices were con-cemed, the adoption of effluent treatment plants was done only by very few farmers. In order to study the relationship between the profile .characteristics and the extent of adoption, the correlation analysis of the seventeen profile characteristics with SOCIO-ECONOMIC PROFILE OF SHRIMP FARMERS 227 Table 1. Profile of the respondents Variable/ Shrimp farmers Shrimp fanners Total Categories (Nellore) (Nagapattinam) respondents (n=60) (n=60) (n=120) No Percent No Percent No Percent Age Young 19 31.67 8 13.33 27 22.50 Middle Y 15.00 27 45 .(X) 36 30.()() Old 32 53.33 25 41.70 57 47.50 Educational Status Primary 18 30.10 16 26.67 34 28.33 Second ary 25 41.67 13 21.66 38 31.67 Collegiate 17 28.33 31 51.67 48 40.rX} Family Typ e Joint 22 36.67 35 58.33 57 47.50 Nuclear 38 63.33 25 41 .67 63 52.50 Family Size Up to 5 32 53.33 37 61.67 69 57.50 More than 6 28 46.67 23 38.33 51 42.50 Farm Size Margina l 15 25.00 5 83.33 20 16.h7 Small . 8 13.33 16 26.67 24 20.00 Big 37 61.67 39 65.00 76 63.33 Fanning Experience Low 17 28.33 13 21.67 30 25.00 Medium 26 43.33 29 48.33 55 45.83 High 17 28.33 18 30.()() 35 29 .1 7 Occupation Status Shrimp fanning as PrimM), 60 100.00 53 88.33 ll3 94 .1 7 Shrimp fanning as Secondary 0 0.00 7 11.67 7 5.83 Annual Income Low 20 33.33 20 33.33 40 33.33 Medium 22 36.67 22 36.67 44 36.67 High 18 30.00 18 30.00 36 30.00 Ownership Type • Owned 53 88.34 56 93.33 1()9 YIl.B3 Leased in 7 11.66 4 6.67 II 9.17 Mark eting Behaviour Sold in local market 36 60.ilO 0 O.ilO 36 30.00 Procured by exporters 24 40.00 60 lilO.OO 84 70.00 Material Possession Low 19 31.67 20 33.33 39 32.50 Medium 21 35.00 27 45.ilO 48 40.00 High 20 33.33 13 21.67 33 27.50 Social Participati on Low 40 66.67 28 46.66 6R 56.67 Medium 11 18.33 16 26.67 27 22.50 High 9 15.00 16 26.67 25 20.83 Information See~ing Behaviour Low 19 31.67 20 33.33 39 32.50 Medium 23 38.33 22 36.67 45 37.50 High 18 30.()() 18 30.00 36 30.00 Extension Conta ct Low 17 28.33 18 30.00 35 29.17 Medium 27 45.00 42 70.00 69 57.50 High 16 26.67 0 0.00 16 13.33 Economic Motivation Low 7 11.67 19 31.67 26 21.67 MediuI11 4() 66.67 27 45.00 67 55.83 High 13 21.66 14 23.33 27 22.50 Risk Orientation LO'w 13 21.67 8 13.33 21 17.50 Medium 27 45.()() 41 68.33 68 56.67 High 20 33.33 11 18.33 31 25.83 Credit Orientation Low 3 5.00 3 5.00 6 5.00 Medium 45 75.00 56 93.33 101 84.17 High 12 20.00 1 1.67 13 10.83 228 LEKSHMI, CHANDRAKANDAN, KUMARAN AND BALASUBRAMANI Table 2. Adoption behaviour of shrimp farmers Shrimp farm.ing Practices Pond bottom conditioning (n=120) ~doption Quotient (in %) . 8.00 Pond bottom sterilization 95.00 Measurement of Soil Ph 54.00 Liming the . Pond 90.00 Use of Predator Eradication 87.00 Manure and fertilizer application 69.00 Acclimatisation and stocking of fry 92.00 Water management 69.00 Soil management 73.00 Feed management 88.00 Health management 83.00 Harvesting 99.00 their ex·tent of adoption was studied, and the results presented in Table 3. From Table 3 it could be observed that out of the seventeen profile characteristics studied, the variables such as educational status, family size, farm size, marketing behaviour, material posses-·sion, sociitl participation, information seek-iolg behaviour, extension contact, economic motivation, risk orientation, ·and credit orientation showed a positive and significant relationship with the extent of adoption of shrimp culture technologies by the shrimp farmers of Nellore, and on the other hand the variable ownership type was found to maintain a nega tive and Significant relation-ship with the extent of adoption. The correlation co-efficient values of the remain-ing five independent variables were not significant. Table 3. Correlation analysis of profile of the respondents with ,their extent of adoption Profile Characteristics Simple Correlation Shrimp farmers Shrimp fanners Nellore Nagapa ttinam ,. (n=60) (n=60) Age O.IBO 0.073 Educational status 0.575' 0.301' Family type 0.037 Family size 0.605' 0.440' Farm size 0.516' 0.146 Farming experien~e . 0.437 0.519' Occupation status 0.036 0.078 Annual income -0.030 -0.063 Ownership type -0.283' 0.005 Marketing behaviour 0.571' Material possession 0.579' 0.376' Social participation 0.400' 0.273' Information seeking behavio~r 0.610' 0.778" Extension contact 0.417' 0.797' Economic motivation 0.242' 0.477' Risk orientation 0.383' 0.664" Credit orientation 0.491' >t>t _ Significa tion at 1% level >t. Significant at 5% level Variables like family type (Ne"lore) and marketing behaviour (Nagapattinam) a~e excluded from the analysis due to constant scoring. With respect to shrimp farmers of Nagapattinam, it was observed that variables such as educational status, family size, farming experience, material possesslOn, social participation, information seeking behaviour, extension contact, economic mo-tivation, risk orientation and credit orienta-tion maintained a positive and significant relationship with the extent of adoption. Table 4. Characteris tics of shrimp farme rs of Nellore, on the extent of adoption of cultu re technologies SI. Explanatory characteristics No . . 1. Information seeking behaviour (X I3 ) 2. Credit orientation (XI7) 3. Material possession (XII) Constant. ,.. Significant at 5% level >t>t significant at 1% level F = 17.308"; R' = 0.48 y = 1.517 , + 0.008 X" + 0.075 X" + 0.003" Regression co-efficients O.OOB 0.075 0.003 1.517 Standard Error 0.003 0.032 0.002 0.163 t-value 2.560' 2.375' 2.047' 9.330"'· (n=60) '-, SOCIO-ECONOMIC PROFILE OF SHRIMP FARMERS 229 The negative and significant relation-ship of ownership type with the extent of adoption suggests that, the higher the tendency to . possess own farms, . the lesser would be the extent of adoption. This finding indicates that when the shrimp farmers take land on · lease for shrimp culture, the total investment which they would have other-wise made, by purchasing land is lessened. Hence the farmer would be able to spend wisely on practices such as adoption of improved feed, disease management, soil ·and water management. In order to study the influence of profile characteristics on the extent of adoption by shrimp farmers of Nellore, the step wise multiple regression analysis was carried out and the results are furnished in Table 4. From Table 4 it could be observed that out of the seventeen profile characteristics stud-ied, only three profile characteristics namely the information seeking behaviour, credit orientation, and t material possession were found to influence the extent of adoption of shrimp . culture teclmologies. On the basis of . the multiple regression equation, it may be stated that the extent of adoption of .shrimp cu~'ure technologies was a function of their information seeking behaviour, credit orien-tation and material possession. Table 5. Step wise multiple regression analysis of profile charaqeri s ti cs of shrim p farmers of Nagapattinam, on the extent of adoption of shrimp. culture technologies (n~60) Expla natory Characteristics Regression Standard t-value coefficients Error Extension contact (XU) 0.035 0.004 8.455" Risk orientation (XI ~) 0.018 0.004 4.565" Farming experience (X5) 0.021 0.006 3.498' Type of ownership (X, ) -0.149 . 0.060 -2.502' Annual income (\) 0.004 0.001 6.150" Materia l possession (X II ) -0.005 0.002 -2.023 Constant 2.053 0.196 10.467 .. Significant at 5% level ·· -Significant at 1% level F ~ 37.725 •• R' ~ 0.84 Y ~ 2.053 + 0.035 X" + 0.Q18 X" + 0.021 X, - 0.149 X, + 0.004 X, - 0.005 X" Further it could be seen that the R' value was 0.48 and that the f value was highly significant. This thereby means, that the finally selected 3 independent variables namely information seeking behaviour, credit orientation and material possession together were able to explain 48 per cent of the variation in the extent of adoption of shrimp culture technologies by the shrimp farmers of Nellore. The stepwise multiple regression analy~ sis of the profile characteristics of shrimp farmers of Nagapattinam on the extent of adoption of shrimp culture technologies is presented in Table 5. It may be observed that that out of the seventeen profile character-istics studied, only six characteristics were found to influence the extent of adoption of shrimp culture teclm ologies by shrimp farmers. The regression coefficients were signifi-cant for extension contact, risk orientation, farming experience, type of ownership, annual income and material possession. On the basis of the multiple regression equation, it may be stated that the extent of adoption of shrimp culture technologies was a func-tion of their extension contact, risk orienta-tion, farming experience, type of ownership and annual income. . Further, it would be observed that the R' value was 0.8.4 and that the F value was highly significant. This thereby means, that the finally selected five profile characteristics namely extension behaviour, risk orientation, farming experience, type of ownership, annual income together were able to explain 84 per cent of the variation in the extent of adoption of shrimp culture technologies, by shrimp farmers of Nagapattinam . Thus it could be inferred that the extent of adoption of shrimp culture teclmologies by shrimp farmers of Nellore could be positively influenced by increasing their information seeking behaviour, credit orien-tation and material possession. Similarly, it 230 LEKSHMI, CHANDRAKANDAN, KUMARAN AND BALASUBRAMANI could be inferred that the extent of adoption of shrimp culture technologies by shrimp farmers of Nagapattinam could be positively influenced by increasing their extension contact, risk orientation, annual income and farming experience and negatively influ-enced by type of ownership. Farmers access to information sources can be enhanced by improving the quality and quantity of government extension services whose efforts may be supplemented and complemented by private extension. Besides, credit orientation of shrimp farmers can be . enhanced by -providing loans . to shrimp farmers by Nationalised. banks like NABARD. These measures would serve to further augment the growth of the shrimp industry in the country. References Balasubramaniam, S. (1988). Analysis of Tech-nology Transfer Effectiveness in Inland Fish Farming, Ph.D. Thesis, TNAU, Coimbatore. Kumaran. M, Pounusamy K. and Kalaimani N.(2001). 'Diffusion and Adoption of shrimp farming Technologies'. Paper pre-sented in the Intemational symposium on fish for Nutritional security in the 21 s t Century, at CIFE, Mumbai, 4_6th Decem-ber, 2001. 

Socio-economic profile of shrimp farmers and its influence on the extent of adoption of shrimp culture technologies

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Socio-economic profile of shrimp farmers and its influence on the extent of adoption of shrimp culture technologies

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