Strengthening Linkage System in Aquaculture

The study was fulfilled in five districts which had the highest inland fish farmer population in Kerala. Primary data was collected from 165 staff of Department of Fisheries (DoF) and 80 Management Committee (MC) members of Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) that provided extension support to farmers. Garrette ranking, indexing and weighted scoring method was used for assessing the existing linkages. Through Garrette ranking method, it was observed that inter departmental linkages ranked first, followed by, research extension linkages, linkages with farmers organisations, GO-NGO linkages and Public Private linkages. The average DoF staff linkage proficiency was calculated to be 1.24 (out of 5). Weighted scoring for level of agreement of MC members for various MC functions were carried out to rank the functions so as to perceive the significance of linkage. Finally, policy suggestions were proposed, for improving the existing linkage systems in aquaculture.