The marine fish reserves are mostly migratory in nature. If we do not harvest, they do not remain in the Indian EEZ any way. Whereas when we exploit our mineral reserves, they deplete. A fisherman in India is bogged down with too many problems, availability of finance being the major issue. Problems relating to infrastructure, fishing ban period, the tortoise issue, identification of international fishing zones, etc, are the other constraints.
With its coastline of about 4,800 km having an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of 200 nautical miles (about 370 km from the cost), the marine wealth in EEZ belongs to our county. When we consider the EEZ around Andaman and Nicobar Island, the eastern limit stretches up to the Thailand territorial water and in the south, it reaches up to Indonesia. Similarly, the lakshadweep and Minicoy Island stretch deep into the Indian Ocean covering a large part of the Arabian Sea.
The fisheries and aquaculture sector offers great promise to the Indian economy. It has experienced an incredible 11-fold increase in fish production over the length of just six decades, from 0.75 million tonnes (MT) in 1950-51 to 9.6 MT during 2012-13.
This has placed the country as one of the frontrunners in global fish production, second only to China. This sector stimulates growth of numerous subsidiary industries and provides livelihoods to over 14 million economically backward workers, fishermen especially. Also, the silver sector’s huge growth potential and export capacity has triggered foreign exchange earnings in the value of over $3.5 billion.
Notwithstanding such impressive growth, the Indian fisherman’s average annual production is only two tonnes per person compared to 172 tonnes in Norway and 72 tonnes in Chile. Besides, the fisheries sector is fraught with several other structural and developmental challenges. Yield optimisation and development of sustainable technologies are among the more disconcerting bottlenecks.
Also, accurate data on assessment of fishery resources, harvest and post-harvest operations, landing and berthing facilities for fishing vessels and welfare of fishermen offer other miscellaneous bottlenecks to optimising growth in this sector. These factors adversely affect industrial growth and make performance unreliable and difficult.
This further prejudices investment opportunities and makes entrepreneurs reluctant to participate or contribute on any substantial scale. Consequently, the subsidiary sectors of navigation, oceanography, aquarium management, breeding, processing, export and import of seafood also underperform. The importance of addressing these issues and taking effective developmental measures cannot be overstated. It is required to make necessary structural and administrative changes to ensure that these hindrances don’t keep us from fully realising the potential of this promising sector.
The Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries is the main authority for development of the fisheries sector in India. It undertakes various production, input supply and infrastructure development programmes and welfare-oriented schemes, besides initiating appropriate policies to increase production and productivity in the fisheries sector. However, this industry is a State-related affair and subject mostly to State governance.
Therefore, despite working in concert with other departments, it’s ultimately the State whose endeavours can bring about a reform and help maintain it. The State’s efforts to optimise production and productivity, augment export of products, generate employment and cater to the fishermen’s needs all play a cardinal role towards holistic development of the sector. It is most important for the State to implement rational and preemptive policies, attract public and private investments, govern properly and efficiently and form a sustaining ecological resource base. To achieve this, it has to harness those resources that have been left unutilised.
Though the industry contributes significantly to the GDP and is a valuable source of foreign exchange, there is still a massive potential for exports and room for improvement in terms of optimal resource utilisation and land use. Also, the attention of foreign investors needs to be captured and their involvement needs to be made easier by cultivating an environment conducive to business ideas and innovations.
This can be facilitated by steering clear of the various intervening layers of middlemen in the sector and making business investment easier and more transparent. Development of infrastructural facilities and EEZs for foreign investors will tremendously benefit the fishing industry by plugging the gap of inaccessibility into remote and obstructed corners of the sector, thereby fully facilitating growth potential and enhancing foreign exchange earnings. A liberalised, well-organised and transparent business route will also reduce the risk of diminished returns and provide a sound policy base of foreign capital investment. A well-performing fishing sector will also induce growth in subsidiary sectors and ultimately bolster the economy.
Besides, fish care and product developments are areas that need to be looked into. Inputs to marine fisheries development such as improving marketing of fresh fish internally, improving cold storages and ice plans and cold chains need to be made. Product development and fish care also involves catering to the needs international organisations like the EU. large-scale funding is needed to provide infrastructure at fishing harbours and landing centres to improve fresh fish handling and provide sanitation and other assistance for quality processing of the produce.
Most major stocks have been fully exploited and India’s marine fisheries production has reached a plateau. However, further exploitation has to come from deep sea resources. like inland production, exploitation of deep sea resources also has to come from aquaculture. Aquaculture is the principal factor in this development.
All future additional demand for fish will have to be met through aquaculture. This can be successfully done by enhancing fish production, generating employment, improving socioeconomic conditions of fishers, getting rid of unauthorised middlemen, increasing marine products for exports and increasing the per capital availability of fish to a standard unit. These measures can be achieved only through an integrated approach to marine and inland fisheries and aquaculture by taking into account the need for responsible and sustainable fisheries. Investment into conservation of aquatic resources and genetic biodiversity and research is another thrust area for the future.
(The writer is working chairperson, Entrepreneurs & Finance Customers Association of India-EFCAI. Email: -efcai12@gmail.com)