Financing and Marketing Management

Unit 2- Cooperative movement in fisheries in India

2.1. Genesis of cooperative movement in fishery sector
Origin of the Fishery co-operation trace back to the development of co-operative movement in Canada and Japan. In Canada, fishing is an important occupation in the coastal areas. Fishermen in early years caught fish and sold it to privately owned processing and preserving plants. Due to the exploitation of factory owners, fishermen suffered heavily. The fishermen soon resolved to improve their lot by organising themselves into cooperative societies. By 1949, one hundred cooperative societies were reported with a membership of 16306. By now these cooperatives have amalgamated into13 large cooperatives only. All the societies had in 1986, a membership of 31000. Their sales turn over was of 268 million dollars.
In Japan Fisheries Cooperative Society cover mostly the small fishermen for about 30% of the total catch. After the second world war, the Government conceded the traditional fishing rights in favour of the fishermen associations. Consequently a number of such associations sprang up. In 1960, the law for consolidation of fishing cooperatives was passed. A fishing co-operatives consolidation fund was established with contributions from the Govt and co-operative bank, subsidiaries were given out of this fund to encourage merger of small units into viable cooperatives.