Are fisheries and marine foods the next big things for coastal rural India? Is it going to make them richer…?

Most of the natural resources in our country and as well as in other countries are common property resources (also called commons), which are held by the state and used by the individuals and communities to their own ends. Forest, water bodies and land come under these natural resources. Water resources are tapped by millions of poor fisherman, to eke out a living and form the primary link in the large industrial value that exists in fisheries.

Firstly let us look at why there is lot of potential in fisheries and marine foods which are mainly the outcome of the natural resource i.e. water bodies. Sea food is nature’s fast and convenience food, with low fat, rich in vitamins D, B6/12, proteins and minerals, besides being a source of omega-3 fatty acid. Accepted in modern meal planning as a part of healthy diet and suits innovative lifestyles of health conscious upper classes in India and many industrialized nations. Sea food can be of several varieties with a range of ready to eat convenience packs in the form of pre cooked and processed foods. Per captia consumption of sea foods is rising sharply in India as well as in other countries. With changing urban lifestyles causing a lot of health problems and increasing awareness to maintain healthy diet, we can see there will be huge potential for low fat foods with lot of protein (sea food).

Since launching of the first five year plan in 1951 till the close of 1960s the export of Indian marine products mainly consisted of dried items like dried fish, dried shrimp, shark fins, fish maws etc. The frozen items entered the export basket in 1953 in negligible quantities. Now the trend is changing there is huge increase in exports for frozen and canned products. Japan, USA, European countries always remained the favorite locations for export.

India with a long coastline of 8,128 kms, 1.2 mill ha of brackish water bodies offer vast potential for development of fisheries and aquaculture. With new scientific ways of farming and better techniques and proper marketing channels I think there is a lot of potential for rural coastline people to earn better making use of this opportunity. Now it is up to the savvy marketers as to how they want to use this source from the rural market whether by including the farmers as stakeholders sharing the profits and technology to make the growth sustainable and environmental friendly or just by squeezing profits through middlemen which will be profitable in the short run and not in the long run.

After all sustainable rural marketing strategy takes quite a time to materialize and will happen only when the stakeholders trust the company…