Economic analysis of mangrove and marine fishery linkages in India

- The role of mangroves in increasing marine fish output in India is examined.
- Mangroves improve the technical efficiency of fish production in coastal states.
- The marginal effect of mangroves on fish production in India is 1.86 t/ha/year.
- Mangroves' contribution to marine fish output in India was 23 percent in 2011.

Mangroves support and enhance fisheries by serving as a breeding ground and nursery habitat for marine life. The mangrove-fishery link has been well established in the ecological literature. This paper, however, employs an economic analysis to examine the role of mangroves in increasing marine fish output in India. Using secondary data on marine fish production and fishery resources, two distinct but related issues are analysed: i) the effectiveness of mangroves in increasing marine fish production, and ii) the marginal effect of mangroves on fish production or the contribution of a hectare of mangrove area to fish output in India. The results based on econometric analysis indicate that i) mangroves contribute significantly to the enhancement of fish production in the coastal states of India, and ii) the marginal effect of mangroves on total marine fish output is 1.86 tonnes per hectare per year, which translates into a percentage contribution of mangroves to commercial marine fisheries output of 23 percent in India in 2011.