eng Science and Education Publishing American Journal of Rural Development 2333-4770 2026-02-10 14 1 6 10 10.12691/ajrd-14-1-2 AJRD20261412 article Kanna K. Siripurapu kanna.siripurapu@gmail.com 1 Faisal Moola 2 ,2Department of Geography, Environment and Geomatics, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Road East, Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1G 2W1 1,2Department of Geography, Environment and Geomatics, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Road East, Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1G 2W1 Man-made wetlands, such as paddy fields of Asia present an interesting case of the semicommons. The traditional rice-fish cultures are well documented in North-eastern India, but poorly understood in other parts of the country. In this context the present study attempts to explore the semicommons in the context of man-made paddy field wetlands in Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh, India by adopting the temporal semicommons framework. The findings of the present study suggest that paddy field wetlands are used as private rice fields with very defined private property rights when the rice crop is standing and are open to the public for fishing after harvesting of the rice crop. The transition and reversibility of property rights and ownership of paddy fields at different time scales under different ownership rubrics presents an interesting instance of the temporal semicommons. However, further studies are necessary to investigate the different facets of paddy field wetland fisheries from the lens of property rights perspective. https://pubs.sciepub.com/ajrd/14/1/2/ajrd-14-1-2.pdf commons semicommons traditional fisheries property rights property regimes paddy fields srikakulam