A CFC is a complex of facilities and services tailored to meet local needs. The physical structures may often be situated in a single location on the waterfront, or may be somewhat more dispersed within the village area if that more readily meets with the specific needs and opportunities of a particular village. The important point is that the facilities needed exist, and are placed in a physically and managerially reasonable arrangement with respect to each other.
A list of the physical components which could form part of a CFC is given in Figure 2. Some of these components would be stationary, such as a store, a boatyard or an ice plant, while others might be mobile as, for example, a fish-collection carrier vessel, an insulated tractor-towed fish contained, or a lorry carrying fish and dealers in the market.
But a CFC is more than just an assembly of stores, shops and workshops. A CFC becomes the focus of the fishing life in the village. It is there where the fishermen meet for a chat and a drink, where they can negotiate a loan with the bank or credit-scheme functionary (or, for that matter, with the traditional money-lending middleman) can get advice from the extensionist, congregate and organize into groups and associations, through which they meet and negotiate prices and deliveries with the fish dealers, and more.
The list of components which could be incorporated in a CFC is long (see Fig. 2). Some of them may already exist within the community but require improvement, others may have to be introduced. Some would be stationary in the form, e.g., of a store, a boatyard or an ice plant, others might be mobile as, for example, a fish-collection carrier vessel, an insulated tractor-towed fish container or a lorry carrying fish and dealers to the market.
Developing a CFC is like growing a forest.
There are natural forests which are like the old and well-developed fishery harbours in developed countries. They have been there for a long time: trees were falling and growing with little external interference or assistance.
A CFC is like a new forest to be planted where no forest grew before. You do not plant a new forest all at the same time. You plant a section here and a section there. After several seasons much of the area is covered with trees of different sizes. In the end, however, you have a nice forest. A bit like the natural one, but still different for it has been planned even before planting, and the trees are not as old.
It is the same with a CFC. You do not establish it all at once. Facilities and institutions are built and organized according to the communities' wishes, needs and possibilities. They grow and develop and, after many years, a CFC may become a bit like the fishing harbours in developed countries that evolved over centuries, but, of course, different, for it has been designed to short-cut history.
We shall now see how this “planting of a new forest” may come about.
