India’s small-scale fishers face unpredictable climate risks, warns diagnostic report
A climate risk diagnostic report on small-scale fisheries in the Bay of Bengal region, prepared with the Bay of Bengal Programme Inter-Governmental Organisation (BOBP-IGO) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), warns that India's small-scale fishers face increasingly unpredictable climate risks.
The report finds that more intense cyclones, storm surges, and a rising number of rough-sea days are cutting an estimated 10-15 fishing days annually, directly affecting income and food security of coastal households.
Additional vulnerabilities flagged include insecure coastal tenure, poor market access, gender exclusion in fisheries value chains, and uneven access to welfare schemes.
Recommended adaptation measures include stronger/safer boats, improved weather forecasting, post-disaster compensation mechanisms, community-based early warning systems, mangrove restoration, and alternative livelihood options.
Small-Scale/Traditional Fisheries and India's Coastal Economy
Small-scale (or "traditional" and "artisanal") fisheries refer to fishing conducted with limited capital, small craft, and largely for subsistence or local markets, as distinct from mechanized/industrial deep-sea fishing. India has one of the largest small-scale marine fishing populations globally, concentrated along its roughly 8,118 km coastline across nine coastal states and four Union Territories, and the sector is a key source of livelihood, nutrition, and export earnings.
Key Details
- India is the world's second-largest fish producer and the second-largest aquaculture producer.
- The FAO's Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries (SSF Guidelines, 2014) is the first international instrument dedicated specifically to the small-scale fisheries sector, emphasizing tenure rights, social development, and disaster risk reduction.
- Coastal fisheries in India are regulated under state-level Marine Fishing Regulation Acts (MFRAs), modeled on a 1979 Model Bill, which reserve near-shore zones for small-scale/traditional fishers and set seasonal fishing bans.
- The UN designated 2022 as the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture (IYAFA), an FAO-led global observance highlighting the small-scale fisheries sector.
The diagnostic report's findings on lost fishing days and livelihood insecurity directly concern the population the SSF Guidelines and India's MFRAs are meant to protect, reinforcing the policy relevance of tenure security and disaster-resilience measures for this group.
Climate Change Adaptation in the Fisheries Sector
Climate adaptation in fisheries refers to measures that help fishing communities and ecosystems adjust to climate-linked hazards — cyclone intensification, sea-level rise, ocean warming and acidification, and changing fish migration/spawning patterns — as opposed to "mitigation," which targets reducing the emissions causing these changes. India's National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC, 2008) and its state-level counterparts (SAPCCs) provide the overarching adaptation policy framework within which sector-specific fisheries adaptation sits.
Key Details
- The NAPCC (2008) comprises eight National Missions; fisheries adaptation is addressed partly under the National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem and, more directly, sectoral coastal/disaster missions rather than a dedicated fisheries mission.
- The Indian Ocean has seen a documented rise in cyclone frequency and intensity in the post-monsoon (Oct-Dec) period over recent decades, attributed partly to warming sea-surface temperatures.
- The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and India Meteorological Department (IMD) jointly operate early-warning systems (including the Common Alerting Protocol) relevant to cyclone-linked fishing bans.
- FAO's global climate-fisheries work also feeds into the UNFCCC's Nairobi Work Programme on impacts, vulnerability, and adaptation.
The report's recommended measures — better forecasting, early warning, resilient infrastructure — map directly onto the adaptation (rather than mitigation) side of India's climate policy architecture, which remains comparatively underdeveloped for the fisheries sector specifically.
Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) and Fisheries Governance
PMMSY is India's flagship centrally sponsored scheme for the fisheries sector, launched to achieve a "Blue Revolution" through sustainable development covering the entire value chain — from fish seed production and aquaculture to harvesting, processing, and marketing. It is implemented by the Department of Fisheries under the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, created as a separate ministry in 2019 (hived off from the erstwhile Ministry of Agriculture).
Key Details
- PMMSY launched September 2020, with a planned outlay of ₹20,050 crore for 2020-21 to 2024-25 (subsequently extended/expanded).
- Components include support for fishing vessels, gear upgrades, income support during fishing-ban periods, cage/mariculture, and cluster-based development.
- A separate Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund (FIDF, 2018-19) provides concessional finance for infrastructure.
- The Kisan Credit Card scheme was extended to fishers and fish farmers in 2018-19 to improve access to institutional credit — directly relevant to the "market access" gap the diagnostic report flags.
The report's call for post-disaster compensation and alternative livelihood support links to existing PMMSY provisions for ban-period income support and diversification, which the diagnostic implies remain unevenly accessed by small-scale fishers.
- Estimated annual fishing days lost to storms/rough seas for small-scale fishers: 10-15 days.
- India's coastline: ~8,118 km, spanning 9 coastal states and 4 Union Territories.
- India's global rank in fish production: 2nd; in aquaculture production: 2nd.
- PMMSY outlay: ₹20,050 crore (2020-21 to 2024-25); launched September 2020.
- FAO SSF Guidelines (Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries): adopted 2014, first global instrument dedicated to small-scale fisheries.
- Report prepared jointly by the Bay of Bengal Programme Inter-Governmental Organisation (BOBP-IGO) and the FAO.