CSR Success Story: Fish tales from the hinterlands

With a total production of 13.7 million metric tonnes in 2018-19, India is the second largest fish producer in the world, accounting for around 6.3 per cent of the global production. As per estimates, the sector has an average annual growth rate of 7 per cent. However, despite the promising figures, the estimated 14.5 million traditional fishing communities engaged in employment in this sector are among the poorest and underserved in India.

For most fishers and fishing communities in India, who are heavily dependent on traditional knowledge and practices, inland fish farming is a relatively unexplored activity. To solve for this challenge, in 2016, Tata Trusts launched the Open Source Fisheries (OSF) programme to help expand and improve inland fish farming and adopt culture fisheries practices to enhance productivity, which would essentially help India achieve a better aquatic balance and assist in increasing the incomes of 150,000 families in India in the next five years.

The programme has been designed to reduce distress migration by providing an additional source of livelihood to the farmers, support the nutritional requirements of the region as well as help meet the fish demands of states which are currently being fulfilled through imports.

The programme focuses on training the communities to breed and rear fish spawn into fingerlings through fairly simple techniques. Adoption of sustainable aquaculture technology in low-cost, scalable versions by marginal farmers helps improve sustainability, lower ecological impact, and reduce their dependency on external factors to ensure a steady flow of income through better stocking and seed sales. Culture fish farming observes more efficient usage of land and water, which is instrumental in climate resilience and risk reduction.

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Due to the prevailing use of traditional practices, it was noted that feeding was not a common practice among fish farmers, and that there was a lack of standard practices. Other challenges faced by fish farmers was the lack of good quality nets and access to technical experts. Moreover, harvested fish was sold at villages or local levels at lower than market prices, leading to a lower income reward for the efforts invested.

Tata Trusts’ OSF programme is a joint collaboration of Tata Trusts, the state government, and NGOs. OSF focuses on the necessary shift of knowledge from traditional practices to culture fishing practices, and developing the required local ecosystem to support and sustain the practices and communities long term. The OSF intervention also drives standardization of Package of Practices (PoP) covering the entire fisheries value chain, from breeding, to seed production, seed rearing, marketing, as well as the development of the ecosystem through fishery allied activities (feed production, net-making, bulk purchase of inputs, etc.) – all of this anchored through strong community institutions.

The OSF programme which began in Andhra Pradesh, quickly scaled up to Jharkhand in 2017. Today, the programme is being run across four states (Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tripura and Jharkhand) in 1240 villages over 19 districts, and has positively impacted over 35,000 Households. In FY 19-20, more than 1200 fish nurseries have been supported in an entrepreneurship model, producing 4.6 Cr fingerlings.

Pond-based integrated livelihoods model has been adopted by more than 1000 farmers in Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh, engaging in fisheries with duckery, bund plantation (fruits, vegetables, pulses), poultry. Five self-help groups have been established and trained in Jharkhand and Maharashtra to support with allied activities like feed production and net-making.

The OSF intervention has thus led to an annual incremental income of Rs. 25,000 per Household through fisheries, and increased the productivity by almost three times. Improved fish varieties have also been piloted with 200 farmers in Jharkhand and Maharashtra, and other successful pilots include paddy with fish, fish breeding, portable hatchery, etc.

“Fishing communities have for long been dependent on traditional practices and limited ecosystems that have been unable to realise the potential of the sector, and offered limited livelihood avenues. As fish production and consumption grows, there is a need to improve sources and practices to help maintain aquatic balance, thereby improving livelihoods of these communities to sustain and grow,” said Shashwati Bhunia, Fisheries Theme Lead at Tata Trusts.

Despite being a fairly young program, the Open Source Fisheries initiative has shown a good track record in its first phase, achieving more than 85 percent of its expected outcome. As a programme, it has created tremendous pull from the community, especially in the high fish consumption states, and has garnered significant attention from the government, who are looking to collaborate. Some of the scalable models under this programme can also be layered with some existing livelihoods interventions, thus providing additional sources of livelihood to households, on a lower investment of resources and time.