Current World Environment Vol. 10(1), 199-205 (2015) Technical Efficiency of Shrimp Farming in Andhra Pradesh: Estimation and Implications I. SIVARAMAN 1 , M. KRISHNAN 2 , P.S. ANANTHAN 2 , K.J.S. SATYASAI 3 , L. KRISHNAN 4 , P. HARIBABU 5 and P.N.ANANTH 6 1 Social Sciences Section, Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture, Bhubaneswar, Odhisa, India. 2 FEES Division, Central Institute of Fisheries Education, Mumbai, India. 3 DEAR, NABARD, Mumbai, India. 4 Head, Fish for all Centre, MSSRF, Poompuhar, India. 5 College of Fisheries, Muthukur, Nellore, India. 6 Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Kurdha, Bhubaneswar, Odhisa, India. http://dx.doi.org/10.12944/CWE.10.1.23 (Received: Feburary 21, 2015; Accepted: April 06, 2015) ABSTRACT Shrimp farming is a key subsector of Indian aquaculture which has seen a remarkable growth in the past decades and has a tremendous potential in future. The present studyanalyzes thetechnical efficiency of the shrimp famers of East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh using the Stochastic Production Frontier Function with the technical inefficiency effects. The estimates mean technical efficiency of the farmers was 93.06 % which means the farmers operate at 6.94 % below the production frontier production. Age, education, experience of the farmers and their membership status in farmers associations and societies were found to have a significant effect on the technical efficiency. The variation in the technical efficiency also confirms the differences in theextent of adoption of the shrimp farming technology among the farmers. Proper technical training opportunities could facilitate the farmers to adopt the improved technologies to increase their farm productivity. Key words: Shrimp farming, technical efficiency, Stochastic Production Frontier INTRODUCTION Coastal shrimp aquaculture in a traditional form existed in Indian sub-continent for many centuries. During eighties the shrimp farming enterprise picked momentum and became a popular farming practice among coastal farmers. It was in the 1990s, the economic liberalization process widened the scope of the commercial shrimp farming since it was arosean export oriented activity. The government schemes and programmes fueled the growth in subsequent years and the shrimp farming become a very important sub-sector of the fisheries domain. During the year 2013-14, Indiaexported shrimp worth Rs 19368 crores (MPEDA,2014). Shrimp farming is dependent on various factors like quality of the physical characteristics of the system, climatic conditions and essentially the quality of all the input resources that areused in the production process. Hence, the shrimp yield is a function of different factors. The variation in the yield and the factors responsible for the inefficiencies has to be studied in detail to improve the production and productivity of the farms and thus our farming systems can achieve maximumefficiency. MATERIALS AND METHODS In this study we have collected farm level cross sectional data from randomly selected 150