Factors Determining the Development of Sustainable Aquaculture: An Empirical Study

Abstract

Aquaculture, today produces more than fifty percent of the total fisheries output. This itself depicts the rapid growth of aquaculture industry and indicate its extreme significance in the advancement of market economy as well as in the construction of an effective framework of food production and supply. The industry raises several challenges pertaining to social and economic problems which are crucial and can negatively impact the resource availability and conservation. Thus, development of sustainable strategies of aquaculture has emerged as a necessity of present in order to not compromise the requirements of future. Extensive research has been conducted in the discourse of aquaculture, discovering various innovative techniques of sustainability in its practice as well as identifying problems and prospects that hinder sustainable aquaculture goals. These researches lay down a framework that brings forward the essential to eradicate the imbalance between environment and aquaculture by promoting sustainability as an obligation of the society. The factors that affect or influence the development of sustainability ranges from economic, environmental, sociological to various health and accessibility issues. It is important to persistently examine and synthesize these factors to counter the existing challenges as well as to identify the further ones with ever expanding demands and technology in the period of globalization. Further, empirical study on the development of sustainable aquaculture ensures to recognize knowledge gaps and research needs in this critical area of inquiry that in turn provides scope to provide fruitful solutions for the same. The sample size of the study was 193 respondents. The data analysis was performed with the help of t-test and mean.