Stylized Fact Approach to Income Distribution Pattern among Fish Seed Producers in Jharkhand, India

Abstract

One of the serious impediments to sound policy on freshwater aquaculture is the lack of farm-level data and consistent empirical evidence, especially on income. To understand the income generation through fish seed production through the community participation approach initiative of the Directorate of fisheries, Jharkhand, we analyzed the income distribution pattern of 498 fish seed producers of Jharkhand. The data was collected from different districts of Jharkhand by DoF for the year 2017-18. The results revealed high gender disparity in fish seed production as only 2.41 per cent were found out to be women. It was observed that fish seed production has a high potential to be a very lucrative business as income showed wide variation ranging fromRs.50,000 to Rs.27,50,000. The Lorenz curve analysis showed moderate-income inequality indicating a higher concentration of income with the top 10 per cent of the population. Further investigation showed that the top 10 per cent of the population earned 60 per cent of total cumulative income which was higher than the national average which was 57 per cent while the bottom 50 per cent of the population earned just 20 per cent of total cumulative income. The income inequality from the GINI co-efficient was 0.48 which was lower than the national average which was 0.55. The study concludes that though income inequality is lower than the national average however the concentration of income with top 10 per cent was higher than the national average. A more detailed study on fish seed production is needed to understand the underlying facts for the disparity in income distribution among fish seed producers.