A. Suresh

India's marine product sector has seen significant growth, benefiting consumers, boosting foreign exchange earnings, and supporting livelihoods. This progress is attributed to the research and development (R&D) efforts and the supportive policies. The Government of India has implemented targeted schemes to enhance fish production and exports, drawing from past experiences to inform future strategies. This study identifies five structural breaks in fish production and exports, coinciding with shifts in technology, policy, and institutions. From 1980–81 to 2018–19, national fish production increased annually by 6.3% for inland fish and 2.4% for marine fish. However, production performance varied widely across states. The study examines export performance in terms of growth, instability, and competitiveness, revealing variations across product groups and structural break periods since 1995. Although marine products exports show competitiveness according to revealed comparative advantage (RCA), this advantage has diminished over time. Granger causality analysis indicates a bidirectional causation between fish production and exports, emphasising the importance of comprehensive R&D and policy interventions along the value chain. The study underscores the critical role of enhancing production and value addition through favourable R&D and policies to sustainably boost fish production and its value. Keywords: Fish production, Granger causality, Marine exports, Research and development policy, Structural breaks

Sustainable transformation in the fish-based food system holds critical importance in meeting food and nutritional security, earning foreign exchange, and generating income and employment for local communities while preserving the overall health of the agroecosystem. In this context, the present study was undertaken with the objectives of examining the development in the production and domestic supply of fish in India, and to highlight its implications for domestic nutritional security. The study uses secondary data collected from various statistical sources. The study shows that the fisheries sector has witnessed structural transformation over a period of time. More than three-fourths of the total fish produced in India continues to be utilised fresh, and only about 15% is processed, mainly targeting the export market. Exports of demersal and pelagic fish are growing at 26% and 11% per year, respectively, which has implications for domestic food and nutritional security. The per capita fish consumption in India has increased over the years, albeit at a slow pace. During 2010 to 2020, at the national level, the total protein and fat supply from all food sources increased from 25.4 to 32.4 Mt and from 8.3 to 12.6 Mt, in which the share of fish had a notable increase. Consequently, the per capita supply of protein and fat from fish has increased from 0.85 to 2.35 g/day in protein and from 0.15 to 0.5 g/day in fat. The per capita supply of fish-based protein and fat is increasing over a period of time, as the supply of fish is growing above the population growth rate. However, the global data indicate that compared to several Asian neighbours, the fish-based nutrients in the supply of animal based protein and fat are lower in India, and there is potential to augment it. Due to the high demand, fish as a commodity may become inaccessible to several low-income consumers, unless its production is increased to meet the demand. This necessitates strategies to enhance production through sustainable intensification supported by appropriate technologies, institutional frameworks, and enabling policies, while maintaining ecosystem health.

The article evokes interest, as it compares two countries having wide economic and social differences. The article provides some general observations on these dimensions. However, as a research article, it requires a comprehensive revision. * In t...

Land degradation has emerged as one of the pivotal concerns for Indian agriculture in the 21st century. With rapid modernization and intensification of agricultural operations, land degradation has also increased simultaneously. This study estimates the losses accruing to agriculture from land degradation. On an average, land degradation results in losses in agriculture productivity amounting to INR 3654 per hectare annually (at 2011–12 prices). Further, a reduction in land degradation by 10% would reduce direct economic losses accruing from land degradation to INR 3145 per hectare to INR 3654 per hectare. Examination of state‐level cross section reveals that annual losses accruing from land degradation vary considerably across states. A vulnerability matrix is formulated using four parameters to place the states (sub‐national agricultural units) in the order of vulnerability to land degradation. Further, we estimate that an increase in land degradation by 1% could lead to loss of agricultural productivity by INR 104 per hectare on average (2004–05 prices). The findings of the study indicate that the adoption of land and water conservation measures stands to increase the gross value added to agriculture by reducing economic losses accruing from land.

Fishers often face risks to their life and fishing assets. Sudden changes in weather in the form of cyclones, tsunamis, collision of fishing vessels, and accidental firings constitute major perils that affect fishers. The weather fluctuations lead to an unstable income flow. Marine fishing insurance may help fishers protect themselves against climate risks. The insurance in fisheries sector has several learning lessons from the crop insurance schemes. This paper reviews the status of marine fisheries insurance in India and prospects for reforming it in the light of the experiences of the crop insurance schemes. The study uses both primary and secondary data. The primary data were collected using a snowball sampling technique from 200 fishermen in Kerala; 100 each from traditional fishers and trawl fishers. The data was supplemented by a case study of the Njarakkal-Nayarambalam Fishermen Welfare Cooperative Development Society in Ernakulam, Kerala which facilitates insurance coverage to traditional fishers. Also, three focused group discussions with the fishermen were carried out. The leaning lessons for fisheries insurance from the crop insurance in Kerala were derived following a literature review. All the traditional vessels (100%) in the sample were insured due to the operation of Matyafed, a cooperative venture supported by the Government of Kerala, which provides credit to the traditional fishermen where the insurance is bundled with credit. Vessels insurance has only marginal coverage with trawl fishers. The main reasons for the low subscription are high premiums, inadequate coverage of the loss, and previous experience of delays in settlement of indemnities. Lack of suitable insurance products and difficulty in verifiability affects also affects its deepening. Further, fishers perceive insurance as an additional expenditure, and are of the opinion that the community would take care of the loss to a certain extent. The weather index-based insurance as in the case of crops is an alternative solution.

The paper examines the livelihood impacts of COVID-19 on marine capture fishers in India, the coping mechanisms adopted by them, and their correlates, by using primary data collected from fishers of Andhra Pradesh on the eastern coast and Kerala on the western coast. The fishers adopted several coping strategies, correlated with personal attributes, ownership of economic assets, social capital, and economic status. The study advocates the need to carefully evaluate the trade-off between restrictions to contain COVID-19 and loss of livelihood.

Sustainable development warrants cognizance of the limits of the ecosystem in terms of carrying capacity and technological externalities and, therefore, the limited extent of substitutability of natural capital with physical capital. The notion of sustainability assumes maximization and/or maintenance of current production without increasing the per unit use of inputs. In this paper, we assess the agricultural sustainability of 17 Indian states using an indicator approach for a period of two decades (1991–2011). For the analysis, the paper primarily uses the normalized temporal data for construction of indices for each of the selected indicators grouped under environmental, economic, and social dimensions. Overall, the agricultural sustainability has improved in all the states. Among the sub-components, while the social-sustainability dimension improved in all the states, the environmental and economic dimensions improved in 8 and 14 states, respectively. There was significant variation in sustainability performance among the states. Economic and environmental sustainability indices were negatively correlated. Based on the results, we advocate a strategy that negates this negative correlation. We recommend a comprehensive approach for integrating all the three dimensions for planning actions towards sustainable agricultural growth.