NEW DELHI: The government is preparing to come out with a National Plan of Action on small-scale fisheries to promote the sector in a coordinated manner, keeping an eye on the country’s target to scale up its seafood exports to Rs 1 lakh crore by 2030. The livelihood of about 30 million fisherfolk is linked to fisheries and allied activities in India.As part of the exercise, the department of fisheries has sought fishers’ views before framing the plan, whose draft is expected to be released around World Fisheries Day on Nov 21, and has written to coastal states and UTs to designate a nodal officer or team, organise stakeholder consultations this month and share the feedback with a dedicated national task force which will prepare the draft.India already has policies and schemes covering several aspects of small-scale fisheries. The NPOA-SSF is intended to bring these strands together into a single, measurable and participatory national framework, with clearly identified priorities, responsibilities, resources and monitoring mechanisms.The National Plan of Action on small-scale fisheries (NPOA-SSF) is being developed in line with the voluntary guidelines for securing sustainable small-scale fisheries of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and India’s national policy on marine fisheries, 2017.“The plan will address a broad range of issues affecting small-scale fishing communities, including access to fisheries resources, sustainable fisheries management, gender equality, climate change and disaster risk,” said P Krishnan, director, Bay of Bengal Programme Inter-Governmental Organisation (BOBP-IGO).The BOBP-IGO is facilitating and coordinating the exercise as the Centre requested coastal states and UTs to conduct their own state-level consultations and consolidate fishers’ views for framing the plan.As part of strengthening the sector, the govt last year released a national framework to establish a centralised digital traceability system for fisheries and aquaculture to ensure compliance with international regulations, promote food safety and improve market access.
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The move is expected to help India expand its export markets for fisheries in the wake of the imposition of high tariffs by the US on Indian shrimp and other marine products. India’s seafood exports amounted to Rs 62,408 crore in 2024-25, with a substantial amount of it coming from shrimp exports.Since the framework for the centralised digital traceability system will facilitate enhanced transparency and robust quality assurance, the marine commodity can easily be accepted in other markets, as it will enable real-time, end-to-end tracking of seafood products from ‘farm to plate’ and ‘catch to consumer’ — an essential requirement in many countries.
