The Government of India is focusing more on establishing cooperatives to enable small-scale fishers to avail support for institutional credit, quality inputs, transportation, logistics etc through collectivization, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying informed on Saturday.
The Department of Fisheries (DoF), Ministry of Fisheries, Animal husbandry and Dairying, organized a webinar on “Potential and Role of Fisheries Cooperatives” on Friday. This was the 14th webinar organized by the department in an effort to celebrate the ongoing Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, marking 75 years of India’s independence.
This webinar was intended to open a forum to initiate a dialogue about the crucial role of fisheries cooperatives in bringing out prosperity in the lives of fish farmers, leading towards holistic sectoral development.
More than 100 participants, including expert panellists, fishers, farmers, entrepreneurs, members of fisheries cooperative societies, fisheries officials of different States/UTs, faculties from State agriculture, veterinary and fisheries universities, fisheries cooperative officers, scientists, students and other stakeholders from the fisheries value-chain across the country attended the webinar.
Under the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY), the government envisages a vital role for Fish Farmers Producers Organizations (FFPOs) to boost growth and competitiveness in the fisheries sector. While the Government encourages the States/UTs to mobilize members and come forward with proposals of establishing fisheries cooperatives, it is important to create a handholding mechanism and build capacity of the member fish farmers/fishers from the inception of any cooperative or FFPO. This scheme aims to facilitate the development of viable and sustainable fish farming income generation model that would bring out socio-economic development and wellbeing of fishing communities in a holistic manner.