Boom and bust in Andhra Pradesh: Development and transformation in India's domestic aquaculture value chain

Abstract

India is the worlds second largest producer of farmed freshwater fish. The state of Andhra Pradesh (AP) is by far the most important producer of fish in India. Since the late 1970s, fish culture in AP has undergone a boom (first with Indian major carps, then pangasius), resulting in expansion of pond area to 142,000 ha, and massive increases in inland farmed fish production, to 1.5 million tons. Unregulated growth of carp farming has caused severe environmental conflicts, leading to the demolition of 39,000 ha of ponds by the state. Subsequently, the extreme growth of pangasius farm output has resulted in oversupply, economic crises for farmers, and major restructuring of the value chain. Despite its vast scale and dramatic consequences, the inland aquaculture boom in AP has received little attention in the international literature. This paper addresses this gap by analyzing changes in each segment of APs freshwater aquaculture value chain during four distinct phases of development (incubation, take-off, maturation and modernization). This analysis informs the wider literature by showing the role that interlinked transformations throughout the value chain play in enabling and shaping crop booms