GS Paper 3
Syllabus: Economics of Animal-Rearing/Food Processing and Related Industries in India
Source: IE
Context: Like China, India must raise its own deep-water fishing fleet and build modern harbours to further its economic and security goals.
Importance of the fishing sector for India:
- Fish is an affordable and rich source of animal protein → an option to mitigate hunger and malnutrition.
- Since Independence, India’s marine fishery has been dominated by the “artisanal sector” – delivering only 2% of marine fish to the market [98% – caught by mechanised craft].
- Commercial fishing has shown steady growth and has become a major contributor to foreign exchange: India – is a leading seafood exporting nation.
- Fisheries provide a livelihood to about 15 million fishers and fish farmers at the primary level and generate almost twice the number of jobs along the value chain.
- These figures could have been much higher had India invested in a deepwater fleet, which
- Is an important component of the sea power of the state.
- Ensures a solution to the acute food problem facing mankind.
Need for a deepwater fleet for India:
- Fishing is being undertaken in coastal waters → Fishermen have to compete with those of neighbours, Sri Lanka (Palk Strait) and Pakistan.
- Rich resources in India’s EEZ remain underexploited → catch taken away by the better-equipped fishing fleets of other Indo-Pacific countries.
- Neighbours indulging in illegal, unregulated, and unreported (IUU) fishing → has serious security and environmental implications.
- Fishing vessels drifting unknowingly into foreign waters leading to prolonged imprisonment of the crew.
- India’s fisheries exports are at a low level of value addition.
Lessons to be learnt from China:
- It has mobilised the fishing industry to meet the rising demand for protein and had begun distant deepwater fishing in 1985.
- With an eye on “protein and profit”, China struck contracts to fish in the EEZ of other Asian and African countries.
- Consequently, China is a “fishery superpower” today, owning the world’s largest deep-water fishing fleet, with boats that stay at sea for months or even years.
- China also uses a part of its fishing fleet as a “maritime militia”, which assists the navy and coast guard in their tasks.
Initiatives of the Indian govt:
| 1. PM Matsya Sampada Yojana (2020): A flagship scheme for sustainable development of India’s fisheries sector with an estimated investment of Rs 20,000 crores over the next five years.
2. Indo-Sri Lankan Fishing Corporation (under the above Yojana), with a deepwater fishing fleet and dedicated fishing harbours, ○ Could not only provide a huge boost to the fishing industries of both nations, ○ But also remove an unwanted irritant in bilateral relations. 3. SAGAR: Security and Growth for All in the Region. |
To evolve a long-term vision for its fishing industry, focus areas for India:
- Mechanisation and modernisation of fishing vessels by providing communication links and electronic fish-detection devices.
- Developing deep-water fishing (DWF) fleets, with bigger, sea-going trawlers equipped with refrigeration facilities.
- A DWF fleet around the “mothership” concept, wherein a large vessel would accompany the fleet to provide fuel, medical and on-board preservation/processing facilities.
- Development of modern fishing harbours with adequate berthing and post-harvest facilities, including cold storage, preservation, and packaging of fish.
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