Alternative technology development in fisheries and Coops - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Alternative technology development in fisheries and Coops

V.Vivekanandan

Former Chief Executive

South Indian Federation of Fishermen SocietiesSlide2

What this story is about

The quest for alternative boat building technologies on the south west coast of India

The introduction and spread of marine plywood boats all along the SW coast

The role of fishworker coops in the new technology development

Long term impacts

The current challenge of sustainable fisheries and future of small scale fisheriesSlide3

Replacing the kattumaram

1980:

Fr.Gillet

, KSSS & CAT

Perceived shortage of

Albizia

logs

Idea to develop

Kattumaram

made of other materials—Fibre glass or

ferrocement

Partnership with Edwin Gifford and ITDG

Marine plywood boat built with “stitch and glue” methodology

First prototype of a

Kottar

Kat, a

kattumaram

substitute meant for sailing and rowing introduced in 1981Slide4
Slide5
Slide6

Context of new tech introduction

Blue revolution starting from mid 1960s

Introduction of mechanised trawlers leading to creation of dualism in fisheries: “new modern” sector and “traditional/artisanal” sector

Competition for resources between two sectors

Decline of share of traditional fishermen and depletion of near shore fisheries

Traditional fishermen desperate to go deeper to tap new fish resources just to survive

Arrival of imported Outboard Motors; innovate fishermen put OBM on

kattumaramSlide7

Kottarkat, a runaway success

Fishermen latched on to the

Kottarkat

as most suitable beach landing and surf crossing boat for use with OBMs

Increased range of operations and caught more fish

However,

Kottarkat

not designed for use with motors and started cracking up

Changes in design to suit motorisation and call back of sold boats to strengthen them

The new marine plywood boat become a runaway success—not as

kattumaram

substitute but as an intermediate technology between traditional boats and mechanised trawlers

It was later found that even the shortage of

Albizia

was not really true: new social forestry initiative in Kerala had actually led to increase in

Albizia

availability!Slide8
Slide9

SIFFS

Around 1980 another initiative in neighbouring Trivandrum district of Kerala was taking off

“

Marianad

” model of fishermen coop to market fish and provide credit emerged in 1970 and started slowly spreading in Trivandrum and Kanyakumari districts through Church organisations and associated NGOs

Trivandrum fish marketing coops got together in 1980 to form the South Indian Federation of Fishermen Societies or SIFFS to take fish marketing to higher levelSlide10

SIFFS takes over responsibility of new technology

Fr.Gillet

and his associates, seeing that the new boats were mainly going to Kerala decided that SIFFS as a fishermen’s coop federation is most appropriate institution to take up further development of the new technology and to commercialise it

Reluctantly, SIFFS took up the challenge and started a boat building unit in 1983

As traditional fishermen started rapidly modernising and adopting OBMs across the south west coast of India, the plywood boat demand increased

Over time SIFFS developed many new designs to suit users of other traditional craft like

vallams

(canoes)

Network of production and repair centres in Kerala, TN and Southern KarnatakaSlide11
Slide12
Slide13

Current status

Private sector—entirely small and cottage sector scale—has adopted technology and now manufactures much more boats than SIFFS

Over a 100,000 boats sold all over the SW coast using marine ply boat technology; 25,000 boats currently in operation from Kanyakumari to

Ratnagiri

; SIFFS share around 25%Slide14

Short and medium term impacts

Small scale fisheries (SSF), facing extinction due to competition with trawlers, survived, even started thriving

Increase in productivity of

ssf

with significant increases in capital costs and operating costs

Greater dependency on fossil fuels and state subsidies for kerosene the fuel for OBMs.

Scaling up took place incrementally allowing for capital accumulation in

ssf

without losing control to outside investors

Owner-worker differentiation, which was weak earlier, became more pronounced, but class formation in the classical sense was weak due to hurdles for accumulation (traditional sharing system) with traditional village communities continuing to have control of fishing boats

By 2000, nearly 90% of small fishing boats are motorised—very little of sailing and rowing vessels left in the fisherySlide15

Long term impacts

New technology introduced when overall fisheries resource exploitation was high in coastal waters but low in offshore and deep sea areas of India’s EEZ

Now both mechanised motors and motorised vessels fish all over the Indian seas with over 90% of the potential yield being already exploited

While trawling remains a major problem for fisheries management, small scale sector is also now guilty of overfishing and resource degradation

SSF has adopted scaled down versions of mechanised fishing gear—mini-trawl, ring seine, etc.Slide16
Slide17
Slide18

Coop control over technology--advantages

The role played by SIFFS in boat building has been beneficial:

Continuing R&D to provide boats to suit different areas and needs

Strong fishermen oversight of R&D and boat building has ensured boat prices and repair charges are reasonable

In addition to price leadership, SIFFS ensures quality benchmarks and indirectly regulates private boat yards

Establishing control over imported OBMs and spares through direct imports—all-India distributor of OBMsSlide19

Coops--Limitations

While coops have been useful in market exploitation of fishermen—fish marketing, credit and inputs—they have proved ineffective in fisheries resource management

The trade unions that came up with SIFFS, well beyond the area of SIFFS, to fight for small fishermen rights, have also been found ineffective in resource managementSlide20

New set of institutions for resource management

History of fisheries management by traditional and customary institutions across the coast before coming of blue revolution

These institutions continue to operate with diminished power as mechanised boats operate outside their control and motorisation has resulted in new divisions within SSF

State laws to manage fisheries have emerged with some regulations implemented by the state

State intervention in resource management only marginally successful

A new regime for fisheries management is called for

The “Co-management” idea

Current experiments