Blue revolution with grassroot focus drives fish directly to homes

Women self-help groups, fishermen bodies, two-wheelers makers and auto financiers are at the forefront in capturing this new business opportunity

A visit to a fish market is seldom a pleasant experience - filthy environment and putrid smell that can put you off.

But, this may soon change. The National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB), thinking out-of-the box, is now bringing the market to your home.

Equipping a traditional fish seller with a two-wheeler and an ice box, the NFDB has kick-started a make-over that is also seeing a rise in the incomes of 15-million dependant households in the country, besides generating new enterprise in the marketing of fish.

To “plug the gaps” in the sector, the board began offering a 25 per cent subsidy to the fishermen societies from this year to enable them to buy a two-wheeler. It has so far assisted 7,000 such mobile units, and hopes to incentivise over 100,000 units by the end of this fiscal. The Fisheries Board would spend for the scheme from its 12th Five Year Plan fund outlay of Rs 1,900 crore.

Women self-help groups (SHGs), fishermen associations, two-wheelers makers and auto financiers are the at the forefront in capturing this new business opportunity.

Narasimhulu, a traditional fish seller in Mahbubnagar district, riding on the NFDB-supported 50-cc TVS XL Super Heavy Duty, is covering 8-10 villages and is selling 30-35 kg fish before noon everyday.

“Earlier, they were no bikes. Now, with one-litre petrol in my bike, I'm covering 8-10 villages. I’m now selling 30-35 kg of fish at Rs 70-80 per kg by noon everyday,” he says. Prior to this, he was selling only 8-10 kg at around Rs 50 per kg, and had to return home with some unsold ones.

Chipping in, the TVS Group has started offering customised 50-cc XL’s with ice box kits at Rs 40,000, which comes to Rs 30,000 after including the NFDB’s subsidy commitment.

Small interventions like this are helping the fishing community to sustain their livelihoods. To avoid roadblocks in the way of clearing the applications, NFDB had also simplified the 32-page application for accessing the subsidy component into a single-page format.

“We are now clearing a business proposal in less than one week,” informs MV Rao, chief executive of NFDB, and also director general of Hyderabad-based National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD).

The board last week in a single day cleared 1,000 application requests coming from Gulbarga, Bidar, Sholapur, Karimnagar, Mahbubnagar, Nalgonda and Krishna, in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, respectively.

“If we reach 100,000 mopeds this year, and imagining if one sells for 300 days and a daily 30 kg fish, an additional one million tonne fish would be sold additional in the country. All this would come through reduction of the wastage,” says Rao.

India annually produces 9.4 million tonnes of fish, of which 30 per cent is lost due to poor mobility during the point-of-sale among others.

In its endeavour to de-congest the traditional fish markets, NFDB will be upgrading 250 existing markets with modern infrastructure in the next two years. It has so far structured 35 of them across the country.

To reach out to the fish eaters, it has also started relaying relevant content in the popular entertainment medium—radio. Over here, it is popularising health benefits like the availability of Omega-3 fatty acids, metabolism regulation, healthy nervous system and enhanced brain activity.