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Economic incentives drive the conversion of agriculture to aquaculture in the Indian Sundarbans: Livelihood and environmental implications of different aquaculture types

Expansion of aquaculture in the Sundarbans Biosphere Reserve (SBR) is irreversibly replacing agricultural land and the drivers of this change are disputed. Based on in-depth interviews with 67 aquaculture farmers, this paper characterizes major aquaculture types in the SBR, their impacts, and identi...

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Autores principales: Giri, Sandip, Daw, Tim M., Hazra, Sugata, Troell, Max, Samanta, Sourav, Basu, Oindrila, Marcinko, Charlotte L. J., Chanda, Abhra
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Netherlands 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8931580/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35303258
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13280-022-01720-4
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author Giri, Sandip
Daw, Tim M.
Hazra, Sugata
Troell, Max
Samanta, Sourav
Basu, Oindrila
Marcinko, Charlotte L. J.
Chanda, Abhra
author_facet Giri, Sandip
Daw, Tim M.
Hazra, Sugata
Troell, Max
Samanta, Sourav
Basu, Oindrila
Marcinko, Charlotte L. J.
Chanda, Abhra
author_sort Giri, Sandip
collection PubMed
description Expansion of aquaculture in the Sundarbans Biosphere Reserve (SBR) is irreversibly replacing agricultural land and the drivers of this change are disputed. Based on in-depth interviews with 67 aquaculture farmers, this paper characterizes major aquaculture types in the SBR, their impacts, and identifies drivers of conversion from agricultural land. Aquaculture types included traditional, improved-traditional, modified-extensive, and semi-intensive systems. Extensive capture of wild shrimp larvae is environmentally harmful but constitutes an important livelihood. Semi-intensive aquaculture of exotic shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) has much higher unit-area profitability than other types but involves greater financial risk. Profitability is the main driver for the transition from agriculture, but environmental factors such as lowered crop yields and cyclone impacts also contributed. Many conversions from agriculture to aquaculture are illegal according to the stakeholders. Existing legislation, if enforced, could halt the loss of agriculture, while the promotion of improved-traditional aquaculture could reduce the demand for wild seed.
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spelling pubmed-89315802022-03-18 Economic incentives drive the conversion of agriculture to aquaculture in the Indian Sundarbans: Livelihood and environmental implications of different aquaculture types Giri, Sandip Daw, Tim M. Hazra, Sugata Troell, Max Samanta, Sourav Basu, Oindrila Marcinko, Charlotte L. J. Chanda, Abhra Ambio Research Article Expansion of aquaculture in the Sundarbans Biosphere Reserve (SBR) is irreversibly replacing agricultural land and the drivers of this change are disputed. Based on in-depth interviews with 67 aquaculture farmers, this paper characterizes major aquaculture types in the SBR, their impacts, and identifies drivers of conversion from agricultural land. Aquaculture types included traditional, improved-traditional, modified-extensive, and semi-intensive systems. Extensive capture of wild shrimp larvae is environmentally harmful but constitutes an important livelihood. Semi-intensive aquaculture of exotic shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) has much higher unit-area profitability than other types but involves greater financial risk. Profitability is the main driver for the transition from agriculture, but environmental factors such as lowered crop yields and cyclone impacts also contributed. Many conversions from agriculture to aquaculture are illegal according to the stakeholders. Existing legislation, if enforced, could halt the loss of agriculture, while the promotion of improved-traditional aquaculture could reduce the demand for wild seed. Springer Netherlands 2022-03-18 2022-09 /pmc/articles/PMC8931580/ /pubmed/35303258 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13280-022-01720-4 Text en © The Author(s) under exclusive licence to Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 2022
spellingShingle Research Article
Giri, Sandip
Daw, Tim M.
Hazra, Sugata
Troell, Max
Samanta, Sourav
Basu, Oindrila
Marcinko, Charlotte L. J.
Chanda, Abhra
Economic incentives drive the conversion of agriculture to aquaculture in the Indian Sundarbans: Livelihood and environmental implications of different aquaculture types
title Economic incentives drive the conversion of agriculture to aquaculture in the Indian Sundarbans: Livelihood and environmental implications of different aquaculture types
title_full Economic incentives drive the conversion of agriculture to aquaculture in the Indian Sundarbans: Livelihood and environmental implications of different aquaculture types
title_fullStr Economic incentives drive the conversion of agriculture to aquaculture in the Indian Sundarbans: Livelihood and environmental implications of different aquaculture types
title_full_unstemmed Economic incentives drive the conversion of agriculture to aquaculture in the Indian Sundarbans: Livelihood and environmental implications of different aquaculture types
title_short Economic incentives drive the conversion of agriculture to aquaculture in the Indian Sundarbans: Livelihood and environmental implications of different aquaculture types
title_sort economic incentives drive the conversion of agriculture to aquaculture in the indian sundarbans: livelihood and environmental implications of different aquaculture types
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8931580/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35303258
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13280-022-01720-4
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