Fisheries Administration and Lagislation

Unit 3 - Fisheries development over five year plans

3.2. Marine fisheries: Contributions to state economy
Fisheries are a sunrise sector of our country. At present, it emerged as an important commercial activity from its traditional role as subsistence supplementary activity. The economic importance of the fisheries sector to the economy may be identified under three main areas: (1) as a source of animal protein for human consumption (2) as a source of income employment, and (3) as a source of foreign exchange earnings.

Source of animal protein for human consumption: Fisheries is being considered as ‘rich food for poor people’ and cheapest protein to the poor across the world. Small fish are especially important for consumers, as they can be purchased in small quantities at low cost. It plays a vital role in addressing nutritional security and food security of poor coastal and inland population through its richness in micronutrition (Satia & Jallow 2010). According to the study of National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) (64th round 2007-2008) on food habits of the people, in India 62.5 per cent of rural and 59.4 per cent urban households consume fish, meat or egg. Between 1987-88 and 1990-2000, the proportion of households consuming one of the three items has increased by 4 per cent in rural areas and 1 per cent in urban areas. This reveals that fish plays an important role in meeting the protein requirement in the country. In India, as per 9th plan document per capita fish consumption is 9 kg/ annum based on an estimate that 56 per cent are fish eaters. Between 1998 and 2008 the per capita cereal consumption declined from 12.5 kg to 11.7 kg in rural areas and from 10.4 kg to 9.7 kg in urban areas. This may reveal that there is a diversification of food basket in favour of non-cereal foods like fish, meat and eggs. Almost 56 per cent of world population derives nearly 20 percent or more of their animal protein from fish (FAO 2007). The average global per capita fish supply is 16.5 kg. but with large difference across regions and countries as well as within countries (FAO 2007). Unlike other animal food like meat, egg, and pork fishes are available at wide range of price tags, making it accessible to the poor people. In India for every 1000 households, 149 houses in rural and 156 houses in urban areas consume fish (GOI 2008). In Karnataka the per capita monthly expenditure on meat, fish and eggs in rural area has increased from Rs. 21.18 in 2001 to 29.51 in 2008 and for urban areas for the corresponding period it increased from 31.85 to Rs. 42.67 (NSSO 2001, 2008). Fish contains 60 per cent of first class protein on a dry matter basis, along with fat, calcium, phosphorus and other nutrients needed for healthy human life (Josupeit 1981). Fish also contributes fatty acids that are necessary for the proper development of the brain and body (Kurien 2005). Fish is second in importance among the nutritious food, after egg with protein efficiency ratio of 3.5.
Source of Income and employment: Fisheries sector contributes significantly as a source of employment to the primary sector of the nation. Globally, fishing and fish farming activities provided livelihood to an estimated 41 million people in 2004, working either on a part time or full time basis. Applying an assumed ratio of 1:3 for direct employment (production) and secondary activities (postharvest processing, marketing, and distribution) respectively about 123 million people are estimated to be in secondary activities, and a high proportion of these workers are women (FAO 2007). According to live stock census 2003, fisheries gives source of livelihood for over 14.49 million people, of which 4.70 million were males, 4.03 million females and 5.67 million children below 14 years of age. The total number of fishermen engaged in the actual operation of fishing was about 2.01 million of whom 0.093million were full-time fishermen and 1.07 million part-time fishermen (GOI 2008). According to the 2005 Marine Fisheries Census (CMFRI 2005), the total population of marine fishers in the country is 3.52 million, living in 756,212 households in 3,202 fishing villages along the coast, or nearly 25 percent of the total number of fishers in India. Of this total, over 9, 00,000 are recorded as active fishers, 1.0 million as part time fishers while 1.4 million fell into the category of ‘others’. The Karnataka state accounts for 5.3 percent (7.67 lakh) of the total fishermen population of the country. Out of the total fishermen, share of marine sector is 35.96 percent (2.75 lakh). Of these, active fishermen numbered 1, 41,720 constituting 54.81 per cent of the total (GOK 2009). Besides active marine fishermen, the fisheries sector also offers employment to a large number of post harvest workers viz. women fish vendors, cycle/M-80 fish vendors, fish merchants, export processing plant workers, pre processing plant workers, head loaders, etc. But there is a dearth of information on the distribution of labour force in different subsectors.
The marine fisheries sector is also an important source of revenue often contributing to regional growth. The contribution of fishing industry to the development of the economy may be measured in terms of its contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP)/ Net Domestic Product (NDP). The contribution of fisheries to the national income is estimated at Rs. 35,650 crores at 2007-08 current prices, which constitutes 1.1 per cent of total GDP and 5.34 percent of the agricultural GDP (GOI 2008). Table 3.2 presents the contribution of fisheries to GSDP and NSDP.

Table 3.2 Contribution of fisheries to Karnataka’s Economy (Rs. in lakhs) at constant price (1999-2000 as base year)

Year	GSDP of fishing industry (Rs.)	GSDP (%) of fishing to total GSDP of Karnataka	NSDP of fishing industry	NSDP (%) of fishing to total NSDP of Karnataka
1999-2000	59648	0.58	53766	0.59
2000-2001	61437	0.60	55421	0.60
2001-2002	54316	0.51	48058	0.52
2002-2003	58355	0.53	50244	0.51
2003-2004	52964	0.46	45492	0.46
2004-2005	53366	0.43	44320	0.40
2005-2006	64691	0.45	53401	0.43
2006-2007	61152	0.40	48483	0.36
2007-2008	61119	0.35	46902	0.31
2008-2009	65100	0.36	49146	0.31

Source: National Accounts Division. (2009). State domestic product aggregate 1990-2000 series http://mospi.nic.in/national_account_main.htm.

It is apparent from Table 3.2 that the contribution of fisheries to the state GDP and NDP at constant price 1999-2000 has been meager 0.36 per cent and 0.31 per cent respectively in 2008-09. The Gross GDP from the fisheries sector increased from Rs. 59,648 lakhs in 1999-2000 to Rs. 65,100 lakhs in 2008-2009 at constant 1999-2000 price and for the corresponding period it increased from Rs. 59,648 lakh to Rs. 94,491 lakh at current price (GOK 2009).
Source of foreign exchange earnings: The state’s contribution to the national marine fish production varied from 13 per cent to 5 per cent annually during 1980-2009 and contributes around 5 per cent of the India's seafood exports and ranks 6th in fish export (GOI 2008). In the year 2008-09, India exported 6, 02,835 tons of marine products valued Rs. 8,607.94 cores, representing 1.1 percent of the total exports of the country. India contributes five per cent of the global fish products trade. There has been a steady increase in exports by volume and value realization since the 1960s in the nation. From 2002 to 2009, export volumes and value showed modest gains (MPEDA 2010). The State marine fish export accounted 33,000 metric tons, valued Rs. 26,400 lakh in 2008-09 (GOK 2009). Table 3.3 presents the details of fish exports in India and Karnataka.

Table 3.3 Foreign exchange earnings of fish and fishery products in Karnataka (Rs. Crores)

Details	1980-81	1985-86	1990-91	1995-96	2000-01	2005-06	2008-09
India (Rs. Crores)	234.84	398.00	893.37	3501.11	6443.89	7245.30	8607.94
Total marine fish export in India (Quantity in ,000 tons)	75.59	83.65	139.41	296.27	440.47	512.16	602.84

Source: GOI (2009). Handbook on Fisheries Statistics. New Delhi: Ministry of Agriculture.