While addressing the virtual conference on Sustainable, Technology led and Responsible development of the Fisheries Sector organized by CII in association with the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, Ministry of Fisheries on Monday, Fishcopfed Managing Director B K Mishra discussed the current scenario of fisheries cooperatives in India and their future aims and targets.
Speaking on the occasion as a panelist, Mishra underlined the importance of 22000 primary fishery cooperatives with over 3.3 million members in the country. The federation can take up the responsibility to enroll 500 FFPOs in two years and take up large scale awareness training programs”, he said.
“Besides, extension work could be taken up by empowering the fishery cooperatives in line with dairy cooperatives. The federation has the potential if adequately funded under PMMSY to strengthen fishery cooperatives in the country”, he noted.
In his address, he said, Fishcopfed is the only national level cooperative federation under the Dept of Fisheries, the Govt. of India with a vast network of around 22000 PFCSs with a membership base of 3.3 million. Fishcopfed has retail shops in several states including Assam, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, and has a series of aqua shops with the support of the concerned state govts”, he asserted.
Fishcopfed has 9 offices in different states and has networking with all states and UTs. It is covering around 30 lakh fishers and we have an ambitious plan to cover 10 million fishers in 10 years”, Mishra informed.
The conference was inaugurated by Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, Secretary Rajeev Ranjan who was the chief guest on the occasion.
He emphasized on the potential of the fisheries sector and how the recently launched Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana aims to support the entire value chain of this sunrise sector. He also stressed on the need for convergence of efforts by all stakeholders to provide the much-required boost to the fisheries sector.
The panel discussions during the conference deliberated upon three important aspects of the sector including Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana; Leveraging Government Support in Fisheries Sector, Doubling Indian Fisheries Export and Domestic Industry by 2025 and Technology Innovations for safe and sustainable fisheries management.