Forum global sur la sécurité alimentaire et la nutrition (Forum FSN)

SUBMISION BY PROF. (Dr.) Mohan Joseph Modayil - INDIA

The FAO SSF guidelines for voluntary adoption is a great step forward aimed at  welfare of millions      of small scale fishers  in developing countries where the small scale fisheries play a pivotal role in coastal food security, house hold micro economics and poverty  alleviation.

A proper understanding of the  political layout of India is essential for implementation of FAO SSF guidelines.  Though India is one country, it is in fact a union of 28 federal states and 8 union territories. Union territories are administered  by the President of India through Administrators called Lieutenant Governors, the 28 federal states have their own elected Chief Ministers and other ministers. The affairs of the country, as per the constitution, are in three lists, the Central List, State List and Concurrent List. Ministries such as Defence, External Affairs, Finance, Environment and Forests, Aviatione  etc are under the Central Government, the federal states  have authority over areas like Education, Agriculture, Fisheries ( including coastal fisheries up to 12 nautical miles) Irrigation, Electricity etc, while the Concurrent List has some areas of both domains. Therefore, since coastal fisheries where small scale fisheries are located, the maritime states have jurisdiction. The central government can not interfere in the governance of the federal states.  This understanding is central to any implementation of regulations and guidelines. Thus  adoption of SSF guidelines are to dovetail with the outlook and policies of the federal government, not the Central Government.

As someone who has worked for over 50 years among the coastal fishes and held very responsible positions, at national level in  fisheries management, development, policy interventions, I feel it is incumbent on my part to think out of the box and record my observations and suggestions. Pardon me for being blunt and to the  point without mincing words.  No amount of  directives or recommendations to the Government of India will yield  any impact unless these are addressed at the federal state level through appropriate agencies. I will go by the agenda proposed for submission as below.

1. Share experiences, lessons learned and good practices on implementation of SSF guidelines
   
   Since my experience is mostly in Indian coastal fisheries, my views are relevant to India and may not be related to situations in the rest of South Asian region. Indian coastal fisheries are  controlled and managed by the federal states as the region from the coast to 12 nautical miles off shore . There are 10 federal coastal states and three union territories. While the coastal states have policies, guidelines and regulations for management , the Govt. of India has no control over these policies or federal states.  Therefore guidelines issued by the FAO or the Govt. of India are not generally followed by the federal states.  The federal states have different languages and therefore  there is need to involve local voluntary agencies who can prepare documents in local languages and work closely with fisher communities to sensitize them and convince  them to follow the guidelines. I had worked as a coordinator for a DFID coastal fisheries project in 4 maritime states and could implement many of the technical recommendations for reducing post harvest fish losses and improving the income and life styles of the target fisher communities. Such interventions ended when the project ceased as the federal governments were not inclined to take the interventions forward. In my opinion, there is need for a multistate sensitization programme  spread across the 10 maritime states in the 

respective local languages to achieve the objectives of the SSF guidelines.  

 

1. Point out gaps, constraints and challenges encountered in raising awareness and

implementation of guidelines

Indian coastal fisheries are multi locational, multi gear, multi species, multi seasonal

activities. One set of general guidelines do not address the issues faced by such a complex                  fishery. Unfortunately, the bureaucratic set up in India is unable to understand the complexities    

nor are interested in taking suggestions outside the governmental organizational framework 

 which has little scientific knowledge. This is a great drawback or challenge in the    

 implementation. The government still follows governance by directives, that is a top down  

 management regime.  Advisory, or participatory or co management regimes are  something 

 unknown to the bureaucracy.  The higher ups in the Ministry are  from the administrative   

 services who are posted for short  duration after which they leave to another ministry. The  so   

 called Fisheries Development   Commissioner in the Central Ministry  is  a lower level officer who is on deputation who is more worried about the    target for subsidies, expenditures,  new schemes, development like new harbours,  annual  report etc. Thus  directive regulatory  measures are  more often broken than followed. Even  the minimum legal size of fish to be caught is seldom followed.  The coastal fisheries is the  administrative control  of  the federal governments and the Govt. of India has no control over  this. So the directives and guidelines are not mostly followed, while the federal governments in  certain cases formulate policies against the guidelines of the Govt. of India.

 

1. Suggest recommendations for improvements in implementing the SSF  guidelines Implementing the  SSF guideline  by fishing community in India is possible only after they are made aware of the benefits and positive consequences of a well managed fishery . For this awareness is very essential. Publishing the guidelines in the web does not reach the fisher communities. They are poor, mostly illiterate fishers who requires one to one communication in local language . Such a mechanism does not exist as of now. Creating such an interphase is step one towards better implementation.
   
    
2. Share concrete plans to (further) use and implement the  SSF guidelines
   
   International organizations like FAO , UNDP and  WWF consider India as a single unit and  believe that the recommendations by them and sent to the Government of India are adopted across the country. This is not true.  SSF guidelines provide adequate insights as well as opportunities for intervention. However, vision without a mission  is just hallucination. In the light of this, if SSF guidelines are to be followed,  international agencies like FAO must consider constituting  a national initiative under a knowledge based organization like  (for example) the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, provide adequate funding, appoint an external adviser who is familiar with the Indian scenario, bring on board the various maritime state fisheries Directors or their  nominees and work on a project mode with targets, milestones, and report back after a reasonable period of say, 2 years. The guidelines are to be got translated to 10 state languages and printed and distributed to VAs during the local interaction gathering with fisher communities. This is the only way SSF guidelines will work in  India. At this point I wish to state that I have operated a DFID project across maritime states in India on similar lines and it was a great success as per DFID reviews.
   
    
3. Tell us why the SSF guidelines are important.
   
   SSF guidelines are important for welfare of the community as well as robust health of the fishery. However, some issues like Tenure Rights are not practical in a multi gear, multi locations, multi species fishery where several types of gear are used for capture of mixed shoals. Similerly fixing quotas will not work in India.  Currently the value chains are in the hands of the trade and middlemen and fishers do not get any role to play. Fish is big business and most fishing is currently done as contract fishing and whatever is caught  is bound to be handed over to the traders. Many we intentioned interventions do not work when the trade mafia is in control of both fishing and value chain. Gender equity is an important element in coastal fisheries. Although women do not go for fishing, post- harvest  small scale fish handling, trading and traditional salting and drying type of processing are done by the women in the community. They are not an organized sector and mostly work on individual basis. I the small scale fishing sector in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, women headed households are common as men engage in actual fishing, net mending, drinking and sleeping. Women control the home microeconomics and take care of the elderly, children and domestic needs.

Climate change has been playing a major role in capture fisheries and the species ratios, quantities, seasons and locations are vastly affected by climate factors like increase in surface temperatures, distribution of  nutrients and as a consequence distribution and abundance of fish food organisms, unpredictable rains, cyclones, fishing bans imposed by the government due to bad weather. These affect not only the fish landings, but also the income, life styles and poverty issues of marginal  fishers in the coastal belt.  Governmental support is essential to cope up with such unexpected events. Safety at sea is yet another area of concern for the fishing boats and crew. Loss of life due to accidents at sea is common.  So are issues with fishing in 

International sea boundaries  with neighbouring  countries.

For further information:

Prof. Mohan Joseph Modayil. Ph.D., D.Sc.

Former Director, Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (Govt. of India), Kochi

Former Member/Chairman, Agricultural Scientists Recruitment Board, Govt. of India, New Delhi

E mail: [email protected]

Phone +91 8921640866 / 9061114444