The marine capture fisheries sector in India which witnessed a loss of Rs 224 crore in a day due to the pandemic and the lockdown will further loose due to seasonal fishing ban in different states, said C N Ravishankar, Director, CIFT.
The Central Institute of Fisheries Technology (CIFT) released a report recently stating that the pandemic and the lockdown brought an estimated loss of Rs 224 crore in a day.
The report says that this figure can be broadly corroborated with the estimates that can be arrived at by using the data on value of output of marine fisheries reported by Central Statistical Office.
The total value of output from the marine fishery sector in the year 2015-16 (the latest year for which data is available) is Rs 68414 crore (current prices). The office of economic advisor, ministry of commerce, indicates average wholesale price inflation of marine fish about 5%.
Taking this into account, the value of output lost would come to about Rs 6763 crores per month. For stability of figures, an average of the values arrived by both the methods are taken, which comes to about Rs 6838 crore/ month, of which, Rs 6008 crore is the loss by the mechanized sector and Rs 830 crore by non-mechanized sector (88% and 12%, respectively), the report said.
Talking to AQUAPOST, Ravishankar said, “We have sent this report to the Central Government and the State Government of Kerala for reference and further action. We have not included the losses incurred in fish processing and export.” He further added, “Several states have started imposing the seasonal fishing ban, thereby incurring further losses”.
The pandemic and the lockdown have resulted in large scale disruptions in the value chain of marine capture fisheries in India
The major effect is due to the supply shock- as a large number of fishermen practicing in the mechanised sector- longlining, gillnetting and trawling in particular- are not venturing out into the sea.
The total fish production in India is about 13.7 m tonnes in 2018-19, out of which about 35% is contributed by the marine sector. Considering the mechanized fishing ban period and that about three-fourth of total production is contributed by mechanized sector, and an average price of Rs 175/ kg, the total loss could come to about Rs 6913 crore per month.