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Tariffs on shrimps and a few other items imported from the USA are set to go up as the government of India has decided to impose retaliatory duties worth over $200 million on 29 products. This work focuses on shrimp which is the flagship item of seafood exports from India which accounts for 10% of the total exports and nearly 20% of the agricultural exports. Changing markets and product profile including exports diagnostics are explored. Backed by a strong market acceptance, international markets for Indian shrimp have been relatively steady but product profile needs to develop vertically. India needs to diversify its focus from frozen shrimp into value added products. It needs to develop resilience to foreign exchange rates volatility and retain, diversify and develop niche markets. Overall, strong and steady performance of Indian seafood exports overtime should not lead to complacence. Industry needs to be supported both physically and financially. National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) finance and priority sector lending needs to broad base their outlook to enable industry to update and adopt latest processing technology to develop and market value added shrimp. The MPEDA and Coastal Aquaculture Authority (CAA) which govern aquaculture production and regulation need to look into restructuring shrimp farming in the country to eliminate negative externalities that limit full-scale exploitation of its potential. The steady contribution of seafood exports to the foreign exchange kitty of India should make it a priority sector for attention, in terms of financial, physical, human and social considerations. The newly announced MatsyaSampada Yojana of the government of India, should envisage strategies for sustainable exploitation of available open common use resources of fisheries and aquaculture in the light of climate change scenario and human resource development for sustaining the sector.

This paper captures the performance of the agriculture, livestock and fisheries sub-sectors in terms of capital formation, incremental capital output ratio and relative contribution of these sub-sectors to gross domestic product during the period 2004-05 to 2010-11. The Gross Fixed Capital Formation (GFCF) in fisheries took off at around 6 per cent in 1990, peaked at around 16 per cent in 1999 and has been hovering around 10 per cent for the past 5-6 years. But, the GFCF in agriculture turned positive after 1999, and reached a maximum of 5 per cent, while GFCF in livestock, turned positive only in the X th Plan period and still remains below the 5 per cent mark. The investment elasticity of growth (IEG) in agriculture has been found fluctuating during 1981-2011, while that of the livestock and fisheries sub-sectors has been found improving. In all the three sub-sectors, when the investment elasticity is higher, the Incremental Capital Output Ratio (ICOR) is lower and vice-a-versa. The investment efficiency ratio (IER) has been found increasing in agriculture and fisheries, and reducing in the livestock sub-sector. Despite the fact that agriculture is the largest private investment sector in India, the investment elasticity is low and the ICOR is high, indicating the need for a relook at the composition and direction of investment in agriculture and livestock sub-sectors. The estimates of IEG in the fisheries have been found positive but, the ICOR is declining, indicating an increased output resulting from the increasing capital formation. The cointegration analysis has revealed a long-run equilibrium of time series with a common ground in the values of agriculture, livestock and fisheries GDP and GFCF. The ICOR in livestock has been found declining, indicating an excess capacity of capital in this sub-sector despite the fact that the IER has been marginally positive. The excess capacity could also arise because of misdirected investments in areas within the livestock sub-sector. Some broad leads have been derived from the results.

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Identification of spatial gradient in the vulnerability of white leg shrimp production to climate change is imperative in the formulation and implementation of suitable adaptive measures. A composite vulnerability index was computed by employing 36 variables pertaining to exposure (11), sensitivity (11) and adaptive capacity ( 14) dimensions to map the extent of vulnerability in white leg shrimp production across Indian states. Based on its magnitude, the vulnerability index was categorized into three groups, namely low, moderate and high. Results showed that the mean composite vulnerability index was 0.65 and ranged from 0.34 to 0.99 indicating that there was a strong spatial pattern. Among the nine states, Goa (0.99), Kerala (0.84) and Odisha (0.77) were highly vulnerable; Gujarat (0.75), Karnataka (0.57) and West Bengal (0.56) were moderately vulnerable; and Tamil Nadu (0.54), Andhra Pradesh (0.46) and Maharashtra (0.34) were less vulnerable to shrimp production. About one-fourth of the production and culture area of white leg shrimp were in moderate and highly vulnerable regions. The impact of climate change on shrimp production is diverse but can be reduced by implementing adaptive measures-suitable policies and investment plans-which should be region-specific.