Surinder Sud: The blue revolution strategy

FARM VIEW

How the National Fisheries Development Board plans to make India's fisheries a success.

The fisheries-based blue revolution can become real and sustainable if the production potential of available water resources can be efficiently managed. But there are several areas of concern that need to be addressed to realise this goal.

The marine fish production, which at one stage constituted the bulk of the total fish output, is showing practically no growth for nearly a decade. Much of the growth in the fisheries sector is coming chiefly from the inland fisheries, which is also beset with some formidable problems, including the environmental degradation of inland waters and the paucity of fish seed.

Indeed, at present, hardly 40 per cent of the country's fresh water resources are being used for fisheries. The output of the inland fisheries sector could, therefore, be stepped up by two-and-half times just by utilising all the available water bodies.

Similarly, most of the fisheries potential of deep sea waters is going abegging for want of suitable fishing vessels and curbs on joint ventures for deep sea fishing. The fish stocks of these waters are being either clandestinely harvested by ships belonging to countries or are remaining unexploited.

On the other hand, the coastal waters, predominantly drawn upon by the traditional fishing communities, are being over-exploited, leading to the fast depletion of fisheries resources of this zone. This is also reflected in gradual shrinking of fish catches in the coastal waters.

Even shrimps-based aquaculture, which has till recently been witnessing a fast, largely exports-driven, growth, has now begun flagging due to the imposition of various kinds of non-tariff trade barriers by the importing countries. Besides, the vulnerability of shrimps to diseases is causing problems for the shrimp industry.

Equally worrisome is the poor post-harvest handling of fish, which is resulting in huge wastage of this nutritious food. While these losses are reckoned at a huge 25 per cent in the marine sector, these are around 8 per cent in inland fisheries. The total value of the losses is assessed at a colossal Rs 1,000 crore annually.

Fortunately, most of these aspects are now being looked into by the National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB) that was set up last year. According to its chief executive, S Ayyappan, who is also the deputy director-general (fisheries) of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), strategies have been drawn up for boosting the output of both inland and marine sectors. The government has set apart Rs 2,100 crore for this purpose for the 11th plan period.

In inland aquaculture, the NFDB is laying emphasis on enhancing the production potential of the existing water bodies, notably ponds and tanks (measuring about 2.35 million hectares) and water reservoirs (3.15 million hectares).

It proposes to hold training programmes and offer fiscal sops for promoting scientific fisheries in these water bodies.

Besides, the Board plans to put fish seed (fingerlings) in all the reservoirs with the understanding that the management bodies of these reservoirs would share 25 per cent of the profits from the fisheries output with the NFDB.

Significantly, the NFDB is seeking to lend major impetus to tuna fisheries, which have a huge and highly lucrative export market, largely in Japan. Most of the country's tuna resources are currently not being harnessed gainfully for the lack of post-catch processing facilities. Tuna, which are mostly consumed uncooked in Japan, need to be deep-frozen immediately on catching and flown to the consumption centres within a day.

Where shrimps cultivation is concerned, the industry is facing serious problems because of the needless hurdles being created by the US and other countries in exports from India and some other Asian nations. These are in the form of turtle exclusion, stringent sanitary and phytosanitary standards, antibiotics residues and anti-dumping duties. As a result, the industry has approached the NFDB to help in developing the domestic market for shrimps. This will reduce the industry's dependence on exports for its survival and provide local consumers the premium fish at reasonable prices.

This apart, the NFDB has launched measures to enhance fisheries resources of the coastal areas to impart sustainability to marine fish production for the benefit of traditional fisher households. Supplemental stocking of seed of selected fin fish and shell fish species is also being taken up as a resource conservation activity. Farming of sea foods like mussels, oysters, jelly fish and the like is being encouraged by providing technology and funds to fishermen.

surinder.sud@bsmail.in