What ails the country’s fisheries sector? On the face of it, all would seem well since the overall fish output is growing at a faster pace than foodgrain. But this growth is being chiefly sustained by inland aquaculture (fish farming). Fish catch (capture fisheries) from rivers and other open water bodies in the inland fisheries sector and from the oceans in the marine fisheries sector are either stagnant or declining.
Historically, the output of marine fisheries used to be higher than that of inland fisheries. However, in 2000-01, inland fisheries overtook marine fisheries in terms of production and the trend has endured since then. The situation today is that the marine fisheries sector has virtually ceased to grow, even as inland fisheries continue to expand. As a result, while the out-turn of marine fisheries has remained static at less than three million tonnes for the past two decades, the inland sector has surged from three million tonnes to over 4.7 million tonnes. India has, consequently, become the world’s second-largest producer of cultured fish after China.
The credit for freshwater aquaculture’s success, of course, goes to fisheries scientists – for developing technologies for scientific aquaculture – and to fish farmers — for making full use of new techniques for producing bumper fish harvests. “The adoption of scientific fish farming practices has led to an over five-fold increase in the mean national fish productivity — from 600 to 800 kg per hectare a year to over 2,500 kg per hectare. Yield as high as 12,000 kg of fish per hectare, too, is not uncommon now,” according to B Meenakumari, deputy director-general, Indian Council of Agricultural Research.
Factors like burgeoning consumer demand, convenient marketing and good returns have also helped in the expansion of fish cultivation. However, the bulk of inland aquaculture production comprises three major Indian carp — rohu, catla and mrigal. Some farmers have also begun rearing such exotic freshwater fish as the silver carp, grass carp and common carp. Efforts are on to diversify the species mix in freshwater aquaculture by introducing high-value catfish like magur and freshwater prawns.
This apart, a good deal of investment had gone into coastal aquaculture for producing shrimp. The indigenous technology for this was perfected in the early 1990s and it had led to a spurt in the production and exports of shrimps. But the industry soon got into trouble owing to the emergence of diseases – notably the white spot disease – and concerns over sea pollution caused by aquaculture units. However, many of these concerns have since been addressed. Besides, cultivation of high-yielding vannamei shrimp has also been introduced to diversify fish species in coastal aquaculture.
However, similar growth has eluded capture fisheries for several reasons. In the marine sector, much of the fishing activity remains confined to coastal waters, leaving most part of the sprawling exclusive economic zone – measuring 2.02 million sq km – woefully under-explored. The narrow coastal belt of around 50 metres from the seashore is being over-tapped by traditional fisherfolk, causing considerable depletion of fish stock. Motorised fishing vessels, which can operate beyond this zone, now account for about 85 per cent of the total marine fish catch. However, deep-sea fishing activity remains rather low owing to the inadequacy of specialised deep-sea fishing vessels.
Likewise, in inland capture fisheries, the total catch from all sources, estimated at less than one million tonnes a year, is far below the potential, given that the country has around 29,000-km long stretches of rivers, 3.15 million hectares of reservoirs and innumerable small and medium water bodies. The bane of fisheries in these rivers is over-exploitation owing to unregulated fishing and factors like habitat destruction, pollution and stresses caused by human activity. The current average fish harvest from major rivers is merely around one tonne per km. Most of the large reservoirs, numbering over 50, on the other hand, are yet to be gainfully utilised for fish production. These issues should be addressed to meet the growing demand.