All governments, at different points in time, have opted for a revamp in policies geared at increasing agricultural productivity. Mostly, these have included crop yield, animal husbandry and milk production. However, rarely ever has a government formulated a specific policy keeping in mind the vast potential that the fisheries sector holds, reports Saudi Gazette.

Though the developmental journey for multiple governments has undertaken massive improvements in areas related to productivity and availability of food sources, the fisheries sector has remained untouched and neglected for long. This apathy to blue revolution has changed considerably with India’s first and biggest fisheries scheme called the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY), with an outlay of Rs.20,050 crores over a period of five years on Sept. 10, 2021.

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PMMSY is designed to address critical gaps in fish production and productivity, quality control, adoption of advance technology, post-harvest infrastructure and management, modernization, innovation and strengthening of value chain, traceability, establishing a powerful fisheries management framework and fishers’ welfare. While aspiring to consolidate the achievements of Blue Revolution Scheme, PMMSY envisages many new, unique and innovative scheme and vision for the sector.

Obviously, the scheme is part of the larger Blue Revolution that was undertaken by the government of India towards ensuring the growth of the aquaculture industry. Through design, India aimed at tapping the massive reserves of fish around the mainland of India as well as around islands. Additionally, the idea was to modernize the industry through new technologies and processes, which would transform the sector and double the income of the fishermen and fisherwomen involved.

With increased productivity, the assumption was that the post-harvest infrastructure would also get a solid boost with private market players also grabbing a foothold into the sector seeing its immense potential. Therefore, it is clearly not difficult to put the foot on the throttle in these areas resulting in an easy three times exports price-to-earnings ratio by the year 2022 which would lead to profits as well as food security for those families that are dependent on the livestock from these catches.

Though the fish production sector accounted for a meager 1.25% of the national economy in the year 2018-19, its share of the total agriculture production was about 8%. Over the years, especially since the Blue Revolution was embraced by the government of India, the growth rate of the sector has doubled from 5.2% to 10.8% in only four years.

Quite simply speaking, the PMMSY has been geared towards achieving five goals: (a.) doubling the income of fishermen and fisherwomen, (b.) increasing the fish production to 2.2 crore tons per annum within a period of 5 years, (c.) reducing the loss in fish production from 20 to 10%, (d.) creating 55 lakh new employment opportunities, and (e.) doubling the exports of fish to Rs.1 lakh crores in next 5 years.

At the same time, the focus was on ensuring the development of the sector through sustainable means without infringing upon the environmental processes of the day. Therefore, the scheme has focused on developing the sector by engaging in sustainable, responsible, inclusive and equitable practices alone. One of the biggest factors towards achieving that has been the up-gradation of fishing vessels and breeding centers, putting in place bio-toilets and aqua-parks, developing aquaculture start-ups and coastal fishing villages.

Special thrust will be given for employment generation activities such as seaweed and ornamental fish cultivation. It emphasizes on interventions for quality brood, seed & feed and species diversification.

Singular attention will be given on aquaculture in saline/alkaline areas, Sagar Mitras, FFPOs/Cs, Nucleus Breeding Centers, fisheries and aquaculture start-ups, incubators, integrated aqua parks, integrated coastal fishing villages development, aquatic laboratories network and extension services, traceability, certification and accreditation, RAS, Biofloc & Cage Culture, e-trading/marketing networks, fisheries management plans, etc.

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With the sudden interest amongst the private players and government, the Research & Development in Aquaculture and Marine Biotechnology has begun attempting to explore the limitless possibilities of the fisheries sector. More than 122 deep-sea fishing vessels have been upgraded with 2755 bio-toilets being installed. On top of the same, about 53,000 rafts and monolines have already been disbursed to increase seaweed cultivation, which in turn is the most sustainable way of ensuring the survival of fish.

But the growth in volume of production need not mean the upliftment of those involved in the sector, and to ensure the same, the government of India has focused on the welfare of people associated with the sector along with increasing production. With the constant expansion in the Kisan Credit facilities over the last few years, the line of credit available to these fisher folk has quadrupled. Already, about 8 lakh individuals have benefited from the scheme with proposals worth Rs.3,000 crores from 34 states/UTs already approved until last month.

With increased production, the scheme has laid down a solid groundwork for development of the sector to ensure that the income of farmers increases along with the share of Indian aquaculture in the global market. It is only a matter of time that the hard work and vision translates to a massive production growth.