More often than not a CFC would not be a rigid, closely knit group of components all of which are responsible and subservient to the policies and dictates of one management organization. In most cases it would become rather loose collection of plants, equipment, organizations, enterprises, services and facilities, some small and some large, some stationary, some mobile, some dealing exclusively with fishing related business (fish market, fishing gear supply, etc.) and others involved also in more general commercial and community activities (general store, ice plant, electric power plant, coffee or tea house, etc.).
Figure 2 repeated Community Fishery Centres (CFC) (Check list for selectionof components)
This being so, various patterns of ownership are possible. Some components of a CFC may operate under local ownership; others might initially, be owned and operated by the government through the Fisheries Development Unit (FDU) and later be leased out, against payment, to private individuals, cooperatives, or organizations. A cold store, for example, might be rented from the government by a group of fish traders; shop premises or stores for individual fishing units may be owned by the community itself. The following Figure 3 gives an example of the diverse patterns of ownership and operation which may coexist in one concrete situation (see Figure 3).
A developing CFC should attract non-fishing professionals and enterpreneurs, such as processors, boat-builders, mechanics, shopkeepers, etc. By expanding and diversifying their businesses and the other components of the CFC, these people would contribute to the community's prosperity and self-reliance. Private enterprise, however, often tends towards excessive profit-making and, therefore, community institutions and fishermen's associations should be organized in such a way as to be able to successfully resist any tendency of turning the CFC and its components into a tool of “making the rich richer and the poor poorer”.
Some people may feel threatened by planned changes. For example, new marketing arrangements may affect middlemen and fish dealers who on one hand often keep the fishermen permanently in debt but on the other hand are the source of flexible and informal credit and assistance. Any plan which does not take the middlemen's earnings and position into account is doomed to strong opposition which may be powerful enough to kill the whole project, while the middlemen carry on as before.
Wise planners, therefore, would look for a way of integrating middlemen (often, rather: middlewomen) into the proposed structure of the CFC to ensure their support or at least minimize their resistance, and at the same time look for ways of moderating the element of exploitation in their commercial and financial activities. For example, a CFC development project can offer new opportunities to private enterpreneurs by renting to them buildings or facilities for their operation. At the same time, the institutions in charge, be it the community council, a CFC managing committee, fishermen association or cooperative, or a government agency, would take care that the enterpreneurs render their services to the fishing folk on socially and financially acceptable terms. As far as the money-lending is concerned, with time alternative new opportunities may occur to the middlemen on one hand, and on the other, the fishermen may eventually become more secure and self-reliant and feel ready to enter more equitable marketing and financing schemes within the CFC framework.
| CFC modules | Operators | Government-owned rented out to fishermen | Fishermen's Association | Small Partnership | Small Coop. | Government Company | Government Service | Big Company | Local Company | Big Coop. Organization | Local Coop. | Private Individuals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ice Plant | X | |||||||||||
| Freezers | X | |||||||||||
| Refrigerated Stores | X | |||||||||||
| Auction Hall | X | |||||||||||
| Landing Quays | X | |||||||||||
| Fuel Station | X | |||||||||||
| Water Supply | X | |||||||||||
| Gear Supply | X | |||||||||||
| Mechanical Workshop | X | |||||||||||
| Carpentry Shop | X | X | ||||||||||
| Boat Beaching Crane | X | |||||||||||
| Restaurant Coffee | X | |||||||||||
| Food Supply | X | |||||||||||
| Advisory and Extension Unit | X | |||||||||||
| Net Left | X | |||||||||||
| Fishermen's Stores | X | X | ||||||||||
| Electronic Workshop | X | |||||||||||
| Fish Processing Plant | X | |||||||||||
| Fish Boxes Store and Service | X | |||||||||||
An example showing how in one (pre-planned) fishery centre (Kishon Fishing Harbour, Israel) various elements are run by various operators. The centre was established according to a master plan envisaging several development stages and gradually filled up with the different elements. This small centre handles some 3,000 t/yr.
Figure 3 Ownership Pattern in a Fishery Centre.
It is not often, however, that marketing and distribution of fish is successfully taken over by a cooperative or a government agency or company. Any attempts, therefore, to replace the traditional marketing and financial system must be approached with a lot of prudence and caution.
In many cases, for example, the traditional system is for very good reasons hardly replaceable and instead should be improved and strengthened. This is where the fish dealers and money lenders (in many cases this is one and the same person) are themselves people of very modest means. There often may be members of the very communities, extended families, etc., who are the main participants in the programme. Many are quite likely to be the wives, mothers, sisters, brothers or more distant relatives of the fishermen, their own flesh and blood.
A CFC may, in some cases, assume the form of a trading station. A trading station is generally operated by a single owner, whether an individual or a private or a state-owned company. Its main characteristics are that, in exchange for the catch, it is offering the fishermen an assortment of services and supplies. Businesses which could become full scale trade stations are frequently met in the developing countries, and all that some of them need is credit and expertise.
In isolated communities where there are no alternative sources of supply and outlet for the catch, such trade stations could easily become tools of economic and social exploitation. It is, therefore, imperative that national and international financial assistance, development credit and expertise extended to trading stations are accompanied by reasonable and realistic conditions determining the maximum profit levels both for the fish they buy and sell and the supplies and services they provide. The prices of supplies and services should be controlled so that, including true local costs, they are comparable to those on the national and international markets. World prices of fishing twines and netting, hooks, lines, engines, fuel, spares, etc., are easy to obtain. Invoices issued by the trading station's suppliers should not be uncritically accepted, however, for the suppliers may either charge extraorbitant prices on their own or have an illicit agreement with the station's owner to inflate the invoice.
Where government's policy is to discourage private enterprise, then cooperative societies, fishermen's associations, community councils, state-owned companies and other government-sponsored enterprises may be required to own and operate some or all components of the CFC. In other countries, they may co-exist with and at the same time compete with the private businesses. In any case, care must be taken that the institutions charged with the task of establishing and operating the CFC are able and allowed, first of all, to involve grass-roots people and their representatives in the planning and administration of the CFC and its components and, second, to create sufficient motivation and offer adequate material incentive to assure the fishing folk's support and participation. The authorities must pay special attention that the CFC becomes an instrument in the hands of the community to improve its own and its members' well-being, rather than another state-run establishment whose priorities rest with its own political/bureaucratic interests. The latter case may lead to a perpetuation of a redundant and costly mechanism long after it has lost the true support of the community, and whose only real continuing function is to provide subsidised employment to its officers and workers.
As the readers may conclude from the two preceding sections, the concept of CFC is compatible with the existing political-economic regimes prevailing in the developing countries. Any or all of the CFC components can be run by a private or state company, a cooperative or any other type of people's organization, by private individuals and small businesses or by any combination of the above.
As we have said before, in many developing countries initiative and support from outside the fishing community is essential to set off small-scale fishing communities on the development path. For the establishment of a CFC, in most cases, long-term government assistance would be necessary for:
identification of suitable communities and locations;
planning, design, and provision for the initial financing;
sustained support through specially established fisheries development units (FDU) to assist in the installation and operation of the various facilities and services and to train the local people in their management, operation and maintenance.
This government and other external assistance in planning and development will only be successful if the local people and their organizations are fully and actively involved at every stage of planning and due respect is given to their views, wishes and preferences.
