A study on the issues of the inland fisheries and the policy framework governing the sector

Issue of Commons and institutional arrangements:

These cooperatives are expected to facilitate the leasing of water bodies, providing credit facilities and inputs like seed and fish feed to the members. However, the proper functioning of these cooperatives is debated. Many of them are affiliated to local party politics. They lack technical knowledge, infrastructure and financially resources to undertake fishery as a viable enterprise for them.

Varying water spread area, pronounced seasonality of filling, high dependence on rainfall, conflicting use with irrigation and common pool regime of property rights are some of the relevant distinct characteristics of these water bodies making fish production a complex endeavour. There is a large gap in the potential and actual yields in these rainfed water bodies and there is scope for enhancing the fish production by about 3 to 5 times considering the present low productivity levels.

Access to water body and their management for fishery development have been identified as major challenges in promotion of inland fishery. Although in many states in order to have secured access over water bodies by the fisher communities lease period has been mentioned as 5 years, in practice it varies widely. In many cases it was found to be for one to three years. Leasing amount also varies from state to state and it depends on the Fish Catch, Water Spread Area, Effective Water Spread areas etc. Lease value is dependent on the water spread areas and the assessment of water spread areas is not being carried out to fix the lease value.

Large water bodies such as reservoirs and others are mostly owned and managed by the Fishery departments in all the states and the smaller water bodies are usually being handed over to the Panchayats. Panchayat has given power to lease ponds and tanks at their disposal and the policies of leasing by the Panchayats do vary from state to state. There is no code of conduct for leasing of water bodies in many states.

All the water bodies owned by the Fishery Department are being leased out to the cooperatives formed and promoted by the department. In case of large water bodies the Governments do invest for infrastructure development and also for fish production enhancement but for the smaller water bodies especially leased out by the Panchayats hardly any attention is being given by the Fishery Department to promote aquaculture.

In almost all the states water bodies are leased out to the Fishermen community but the involvement of middlemen/ contractors can’t be ruled out. It is allegedly reported that these contractors take away the major share of profit in fishery where as the fishermen community involved only in fishing, weed clearing, netting activities and get wages.

In addition to the challenges in access to water bodies and fishing rights, the fisher communities face a variety of issues in promotion of inland fishing and aquaculture. The most common problem is the access to quality seed and technology for fish farming. Inadequate availability of credit is another issue, which makes the poor fisher communities not to invest in fish farming .

They don’t usually go for organized fish farming. Because of the poor investment capacity and risks in protection and marketing the fisher communities allow the entry of contractors to manage the pond/tanks and undertake fish farming. Although there is a huge demand of fish in domestic market the fisher communities get very low price for their harvest because of poor post-harvesting and processing facilities. They don’t have any control over procurement, storage, transportation and negotiation for sell.

Some of issues which need further debate are the coverage of insurance for inland fishery and welfare of fisher communities, treating inland fishery at par with agriculture. Still a large number of fisher communities are out of the safety nets and welfare measures of the government. Though a farmer in agriculture gets lot of concessions and subsidies the fish farmer does not usually get it.

Traditionally fishery has been associated with poor, illiterate and impoverished population, who belong to the weaker sections of the society. Fishery significantly contributes to the livelihoods of the marginalized sections of population; to the nutritional security of millions; to the foreign exchange earnings. Over 95% of the world's 27 million fishers live in developing countries, where fish play a vital role in human nutrition. In addition, many developing countries depend on fisheries as a source of employment, export income and government revenue.

Policies and legal framework governing Inland Fisheries :

Emerging issue in Inland fishery sector: