Extent of Knowledge of Fish farmers about Scientific Fish culture Practices in North 24 Parganas of West Bengal, India Extent of Knowledge of Fish farmers about Scientific Fish culture Practices in North 24 Parganas of West Bengal, India

Abstract

Fish has occupied an important place in the global
food basket as a safe and cheap source of animal
protein with high consumer acceptability. The study
was conducted in North 24 Parganas district of West
Bengal. The present investigation was desirable to
measure the extent of knowledge on scientific fish
culture practices and to find out the direct and
indirect effect of selected independent variables on
knowledge. These independent variables were
empirically measured by procedures evolved for the
purpose, and also by using scales and scoring
procedures developed by earlier researchers study.
The data were collected with the help of structured
and pre tested interview scheduled developed for this
purpose from the respondents through personal
interview. It was found that majority of the fish
farmers 50.8% had the medium level of knowledge
regarding scientific fish culture practices. The highest
extent of knowledge was observed in the names of
some aquatic weeds (95.83%), and lowest was
observed in the minimum depth of water required for
fish culture and the time gap required between
manure application and stocking of fish seed (26.67%).
The path analysis indicated that innovative proneness
was the most potent variable in effecting the
knowledge of fish farmers positively. Hence, it was
suggested that technology dissemination system must
be focused on these variables by organising awareness
campaigns, field day, demonstration, exhibitions,
krishan gosti, krishan mela etc.