DMPQ: What are the challenges faced by the fisheries sector in India?

The sector suffers from low-scale, stagnating yields

of inland and freshwater aquaculture, and poor infrastructure such as cold storage facilities, leading to an estimated 15-20 per cent post-harvest loss.

The access to quality seed and feed for fish farming coupled with inadequate availability of credit makes the poor fisher communities not to invest in fish farming.

For inland harvesting of fish there is no code of conduct for leasing of water bodies and no separate provision of drought affecting this sector.

Loss of habitat and indiscriminate fishing, marine fishing has declined due to depleting resources, energy crisis and resultant high cost of fishing.

Enhanced human activity in aquatic areas creates the frequent occurrence of

dead zone/ Hypoxic zones leading to shifting or permanent loss of fishing zone.

With the increased usage of Fibre Reinforced Plastic (FRP), and poor quality boats have amplified leading to ill-effects on marine culture.