At the outset, I would like to express my deep sense of happiness and pleasure to be here this afternoon on the occasion of the inauguration of the conference on “Development of Cooperative Fish Marketing & Achievements on Insurance of Fishers”.
2. At present, cooperative movement in India is the largest in the world having more than half a million cooperative societies with a membership of 230 million. The cooperatives cover 100% of villages and 71% of rural households. Specialized agriculture cooperatives are operating in the fields of credit and banking, fertilizer, sugar, dairy and marketing etc. Cooperatives are advancing about 20% of total rural credit. They are distributing 36% of total fertilizer consumption and producing 27% of fertilizer output. 46% of sugar output is also being produced by sugar cooperatives. Agriculture cooperatives in India have helped in the generation of Green Revolution through supply of critical agricultural inputs to the farming community. Dairy Cooperatives have helped in generation of White Revolution and have facilitated attainment of top milk production in the world.
3. The present government is committed to the growth and development of the cooperative sector, as cooperatives are regarded as one of the pillars of democracy and a preferred instrument of planned economic development particularly in the areas which required people’s participation and community efforts. Cooperatives are visualised not only as an economic organization but also as a vibrant instrumental frame-work to promote equity and social justice. Within the cooperative sector, the fishery cooperatives represent the interests of the poorest of the poor, needing our special attention.
4. My Ministry accords priority attention to the development of fisheries sector in general and to ensure sustainable livelihood and welfare of fishermen in particular. With these objectives in view, the National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB) was established in 2006. I urge FISHCOPFED to not only implement some of the Centrally Sponsored Schemes of the Ministry but also some programmes of NFDB as well. I am happy to know that FISHCOPFED has accessed funding from NFDB to undertake training programmes for fishers. Keeping the vast membership of fisheries cooperatives of over 2 million, FISHCOPFED needs to train at least 10,000 fishers per year with an aim to build capacity of fishers, enhance the production and thereby provide economic empowerment and livelihood support to the poor fishers which is the ultimate objective and mandate of FISHCOPFED. This calls of enhanced involvement of FISHCOPFED in the programmes of the Ministry as well as NFDB, not only for training component alone but also direct implement of certain other programmes leading to empowerment of fishermen and fisherwomen in the country.
5. A majority of fisheries cooperatives are financially weak in the absence of any economic activity being undertaken by them. Capacity building of such fisheries cooperatives is very much essential. There is a need for revitalization of fisheries cooperatives for which FISHCOPFED must take the lead, its activities being an interface between the governmental programmes and fisheries cooperative activities on the ground. An action plan has to be devised by the federation with an aim to explore ways and means of strengthening and capacity building of the fisheries cooperatives on a priority basis. It is hoped that the Conference will deliberate on these important issues at length and come up with certain pragmatic recommendations.
6. The working group on fisheries for the 11th Five Year Plan constituted by the Planning Commission, has recommended several social security measures for poor fishers such as introducing hut insurance scheme and mediclaim policy for poor fishermen policies. Besides that, the cooperative fish marketing networking is another important issue on which the conference will deliberate at length. Database of fisheries cooperatives is also an important task. I would request FISHCOPFED to interact with my Ministry and NFDB on all these important issues and come up with practical recommendations.
7. FISHCOPFED has to strongly focus on professionalized management of its activities and undertake a lead role in providing directions to the fisheries cooperatives in the country on a continuous basis. The fisheries cooperative census in the country doesn’t give a clear picture of various related but important socio-economic parameters. There is, therefore, a need for a baseline survey of such societies, which could be undertaken by FISHCOPFED. FISHCOPFED implements the programmes/projects at the grassroots level with financial assistance of Govt. of India as well as the NFDB. Its grass-root presence constitutes its real strength. The linkages developed through cooperative networking can go a long way in effective implementation of the programmes such as social security measures, training and even inter-state marketing activities. The Federation is an ideal forum to create, disseminate and manage an integrated database and information networking on fisheries cooperative sector to benefit all stakeholders at large. It can productively provide market intelligence activities, which will benefit the poor fishermen in many ways. FISHCOPFED in turn needs to build and upgrade its own capacity to qualitatively deliver these services more effectively.
8. Last but not the least, I hope that the recommendations of the conference would indeed be fruitful for development of better policies for the fisheries sector in general and fisheries cooperatives in particular.
I wish the conference all success.
2. At present, cooperative movement in India is the largest in the world having more than half a million cooperative societies with a membership of 230 million. The cooperatives cover 100% of villages and 71% of rural households. Specialized agriculture cooperatives are operating in the fields of credit and banking, fertilizer, sugar, dairy and marketing etc. Cooperatives are advancing about 20% of total rural credit. They are distributing 36% of total fertilizer consumption and producing 27% of fertilizer output. 46% of sugar output is also being produced by sugar cooperatives. Agriculture cooperatives in India have helped in the generation of Green Revolution through supply of critical agricultural inputs to the farming community. Dairy Cooperatives have helped in generation of White Revolution and have facilitated attainment of top milk production in the world.
3. The present government is committed to the growth and development of the cooperative sector, as cooperatives are regarded as one of the pillars of democracy and a preferred instrument of planned economic development particularly in the areas which required people’s participation and community efforts. Cooperatives are visualised not only as an economic organization but also as a vibrant instrumental frame-work to promote equity and social justice. Within the cooperative sector, the fishery cooperatives represent the interests of the poorest of the poor, needing our special attention.
4. My Ministry accords priority attention to the development of fisheries sector in general and to ensure sustainable livelihood and welfare of fishermen in particular. With these objectives in view, the National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB) was established in 2006. I urge FISHCOPFED to not only implement some of the Centrally Sponsored Schemes of the Ministry but also some programmes of NFDB as well. I am happy to know that FISHCOPFED has accessed funding from NFDB to undertake training programmes for fishers. Keeping the vast membership of fisheries cooperatives of over 2 million, FISHCOPFED needs to train at least 10,000 fishers per year with an aim to build capacity of fishers, enhance the production and thereby provide economic empowerment and livelihood support to the poor fishers which is the ultimate objective and mandate of FISHCOPFED. This calls of enhanced involvement of FISHCOPFED in the programmes of the Ministry as well as NFDB, not only for training component alone but also direct implement of certain other programmes leading to empowerment of fishermen and fisherwomen in the country.
5. A majority of fisheries cooperatives are financially weak in the absence of any economic activity being undertaken by them. Capacity building of such fisheries cooperatives is very much essential. There is a need for revitalization of fisheries cooperatives for which FISHCOPFED must take the lead, its activities being an interface between the governmental programmes and fisheries cooperative activities on the ground. An action plan has to be devised by the federation with an aim to explore ways and means of strengthening and capacity building of the fisheries cooperatives on a priority basis. It is hoped that the Conference will deliberate on these important issues at length and come up with certain pragmatic recommendations.
6. The working group on fisheries for the 11th Five Year Plan constituted by the Planning Commission, has recommended several social security measures for poor fishers such as introducing hut insurance scheme and mediclaim policy for poor fishermen policies. Besides that, the cooperative fish marketing networking is another important issue on which the conference will deliberate at length. Database of fisheries cooperatives is also an important task. I would request FISHCOPFED to interact with my Ministry and NFDB on all these important issues and come up with practical recommendations.
7. FISHCOPFED has to strongly focus on professionalized management of its activities and undertake a lead role in providing directions to the fisheries cooperatives in the country on a continuous basis. The fisheries cooperative census in the country doesn’t give a clear picture of various related but important socio-economic parameters. There is, therefore, a need for a baseline survey of such societies, which could be undertaken by FISHCOPFED. FISHCOPFED implements the programmes/projects at the grassroots level with financial assistance of Govt. of India as well as the NFDB. Its grass-root presence constitutes its real strength. The linkages developed through cooperative networking can go a long way in effective implementation of the programmes such as social security measures, training and even inter-state marketing activities. The Federation is an ideal forum to create, disseminate and manage an integrated database and information networking on fisheries cooperative sector to benefit all stakeholders at large. It can productively provide market intelligence activities, which will benefit the poor fishermen in many ways. FISHCOPFED in turn needs to build and upgrade its own capacity to qualitatively deliver these services more effectively.
8. Last but not the least, I hope that the recommendations of the conference would indeed be fruitful for development of better policies for the fisheries sector in general and fisheries cooperatives in particular.
I wish the conference all success.
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