MEMBERS PERCEPTION TOWARDS FISHERMENS COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES: A STUDY IN TRIPURA

PEGU CHAKRAPANI¹, A. SARKAR²*, P. BISWAS³, A.D. UPADHYAY⁴, P. PAL⁵, Y.J. SINGH^6
1College of Fisheries, Lembucherra, Agartala, 799210, Tripura, Central Agricultural University, Iroisemba, Imphal, 795004, Manipur, India
²College of Fisheries, Lembucherra, Agartala, 799210, Tripura, Central Agricultural University, Iroisemba, Imphal, 795004, Manipur, India
³College of Fisheries, Lembucherra, Agartala, 799210, Tripura, Central Agricultural University, Iroisemba, Imphal, 795004, Manipur, India
⁴College of Fisheries, Lembucherra, Agartala, 799210, Tripura, Central Agricultural University, Iroisemba, Imphal, 795004, Manipur, India
⁵College of Fisheries, Lembucherra, Agartala, 799210, Tripura, Central Agricultural University, Iroisemba, Imphal, 795004, Manipur, India
⁶College of Fisheries, Lembucherra, Agartala, 799210, Tripura, Central Agricultural University, Iroisemba, Imphal, 795004, Manipur, India
* Corresponding Author : atanusarkar1954@gmail.com

Received : 16-05-2018     Accepted : 25-05-2018     Published : 30-05-2018
Volume : 10     Issue : 10       Pages : 6104 - 6108
Int J Agr Sci 10.10 (2018):6104-6108

Keywords : Fishermens cooperative society, performance, perception, participation, benefits, Tripura
Academic Editor : Saha Biswarup, S. M. Feroze
Conflict of Interest : None declared
Acknowledgements/Funding : Author thankful to College of Fisheries, Lembucherra, Agartala, 799210, Tripura, Central Agricultural University, Iroisemba, Imphal, 795004, Manipur. The authors also duly acknowledge the contribution and inputs of both the members and functionaries of active fishermen’s cooperative societies of West Tripura and Gomati districts
Author Contribution : All author equally contributed

The study was conducted during September-December, 2017 in the north-eastern state of Tripura (India) to examine the functioning of fishermen's cooperative societies in the light of perception of the members themselves. Primary data was collected from 123 number of cooperative members spread over eight societies across West Tripura and Gomati districts. It was revealed that in terms of length of membership, apart from 9.76% of the respondents who had >20 yrs. of association with their respective societies, 73.17% more were having 6-20 yrs. of such attachment. Though 73.17% of the members were found to be in the category of below poverty line and a very high proportion of 97.56% of them were representing Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe community, which called for shielding such populace by fishermen’s cooperatives as handy institutional device, according to the perception of 83.55% respondents they could accrue very little benefits from their societies. In terms of extent of participation of members in various functional activities of their societies also, very high extent of non-participation was detected to pose challenge to the basic tenets of cooperative societies that repose faith on self-help and mutual-help to derive some common benefits. Among the perceived functional weaknesses, ‘unsatisfactory economic performance’ appeared to be the prime one, followed in descending order by ‘inadequate water area before hand for fish culture activity', ‘lack of financial support from the government’, ‘lack of transparency in fund management’, ‘lack of proper pond embankment’, ‘casual approach towards timely disbursement of dividend/share of profit’ etc.

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