Marine Fisheries Development: An Outlook at Turn of the Century and Key Policy Issues

Marine fisheries will have to play a crucial role in augmenting supplies both in the domestic as well as export markets. Thrust of the development will be deep sea and brackish water resources. The exploitation of these resources, particularly deep sea, will require a rapid transition from chartering of vessels to joint ventures and owned fleet with modern and sophisticated technology. Creation of sizeable owned fleet would require massive credit and fiscal support. This thrust for exploitation of deep sea resources can be sustained with consorted attempts to formulate and implement strategies for product development and marketing in both domestic as well as export markets. This will also require the attention to develop the necessary infrastructure to handle such vessels, onshore processing facilities, better management of fishing harbors, cold chain grid in the domestic markets, development of transit and terminal markets at wholesale and retail levels. Boat Building Yards will have to take up new challenges. This also throws up challenges for net marketing industry in this country. All these developments would also require massive efforts for training and development of manpower. This paper deals with all these areas in a systems framework and suggests appropriate policy support measures for strengthening various elements of the system.