<center><b>POST WEBINAR REPORT</b></center>
      <center><b>ASSOCHAM&apos;s Webinar</b></center>
      <center><b>on</b></center>
      <center><b>Fisheries and Aquaculture</b></center>
      <center><b>Industry in COVID Times:</b></center>
      <center><b> Challenges and a roadmap Ahead</b></center>
      <center><b>Date - July 16, 2020;</b></center>
      <center><b>Time - 11 AM to 02:00 PM</b></center>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'><b>Chief Guest: Shri P C Sarangi, Hon ble MoS, Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Govt.
      of India</b></p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'><b>Guest of Honour: Shri Parimal Suklabaidya, Hon'ble Minister of Fisheries, Govt. of Assam</b></p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'><b>Shri. K Lalrinliana, Hon ble MoS, (I/C), Fisheries, Govt. of Mizoram</b></p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'><b>Eminent Speaker:</b></p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'><b>Shri K S Srinivas, IAS, Chairman, MPEDA</b></p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'><b>Dr Rajeev Ranjan, IAS, Secretary, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying, Govt
      of India</b></p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'><b>Dr Manoj Sharma, Director, Mayank Aquaculture Pvt Ltd</b></p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'><b> Shri Rajamanohar Somasundaram, Co-founder & CEO, Aqua Connect</b></p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'><b>Shri Subrata Mandal, Chief General Manager, NABARD, West Bengal</b></p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'><b>Shri Deepak Sood, Secretary-General, ASSOCHAM</b></p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'><b>Dr. Worawit Wanchana, Policy & Program Coordinator, SEAFDEC, Bangkok, Thailand</b></p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'><b>Prof Baskaran Manimaran, Founder Vice-Chancellor (Retd.), Tamil Nadu Fisheries University</b></p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'><b>Challenges Faced by the Sector-</b></p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'>• Gaps in supply chain, infrastructure, skilling of people to newer ways & value addition.</p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'>• Lacking in adequate technology for fish farming.</p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'>• No proper scaling is there in the fisheries and aquaculture industry
      <p style='text-align:justify;'>• Lack of quality and consistency of supply of fish and its products.</p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'>• Not paying attention to domestic market in fisheries, shrimps and fish allied activities.</p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'>• Only have some govt and cooperative ponds for aquaculture</p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'>• Fish Exports have come down by 44% in April 2020 as compared to April 2019.</p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'> • Labour was also not able to go to the fields. April was the worst month. Even some of the areas,
      the workers are not allowed to enter the factories by their family people.</p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'>• Only dependent on 01 or 02 varieties of shrimps which are - 95% on l - vannamei shrimp and 5%
      on black tiger shrimp.</p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'>• In southeast asia, farmers have the lowest farms output.</p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'>• Insurance policy is not there for fishery as we have Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana for agriculture. Insurance cover is much needed as state govt are also asking for it.</p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'>• Lack of knowledge in the production area, lack of knowledge on the availability of materials and
      working of equipments required for feed production.</p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'>• Demand from the factories were decreased and regarding the ready to eat products the impact is
      low as it also impacted the chilled and frozen products like salmon and shrimps. The orders from
      the importing countries cancelled or postponed.</p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'><b>Suggestions and Recommendations By Industry Experts-</b></p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'>• Job generation and investment can do a lot of value addition to the sector.</p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'>• Much need of quality and consistency of supply</p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'>• In order to double the production and export, need to approach countries like European Union,
      South Africa, Japan, Korea, Russia will give us better price for the fish.</p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'>• For fish production, need to open resources to private industry in a large number. As today we only
      have some govt and cooperative ponds; we need to establish more of these.</p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'>• Need to pay attention to domestic market in fisheries, shrimps and fish allied activities.</p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'>• Slogans like "Sunday ho ya Monday, Roz khao ande&quot;\has changed the whole egg-poultry industry
      inside-out. So, similar can be launched for the fish industry by Govt of India, and it can prove to be
      the biggest game changer inside industry.</p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'>• If 50% population of the nation, consumes even 1 kg fish and 1 kg shrimp per annum. Then also
      our India&apos;s entire production can be consumed within our country.</p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'>• Improvement in Exports is directly proportional to the Improvement in production. So need to improve production and export will improve by its own.</p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'>• Coming up with new technology - Biofloc fish farming and RAS technology for fish farming.</p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'>• Improve the productivity; at present it is as low as 01 metric tonne per hectare to 10 metric tonne
      per hectare and taking average we can say that it is 05 metric tonne per hectare, it has to be
      increased to 10 metric tonne per hectare per annum.</p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'> • Introducing the fish consumption as a part of midday meals will propel the growth and domestic
      consumption of the country.</p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'>• Use of AI & Technology in the farm production is the need of the hour.</p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'> • Urge MPEDA and other govt stakeholders to initiate subsidy and better tax return to incentivise
      technology adaptation; that goes the long way to improve the farm income of the farmers.</p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'>• Under FPOs, the credit guarantee should be extended for fisheries as we have for farmer producer
      organisations.</p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'>• Need for eco-friendly technology in order to save biodiversity and mother earth.</p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'>• Building up of confidence amongst citizens to increase production.</p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'>• We need to implement the PMMSY scheme on ground, simply announcing it will not help. In order
      to utilise it fully we need to do basic ground work, research and data collection etc.</p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'>• To implement it properly we need any nodal coordinating agency to prepare its own plan, in order
      to go forward. Also Private players can be involved in this task.</p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'> • Our goal is to double the farmers income, we cannot do it unless production is not increased. And
      if production is increased then marketing is lacking.</p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'> • Rumours like - Eating fish will lead to corona are spreading inside the society. We need to mitigate
      such apprehensions.</p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'>• More fish consumers are fond of eating boneless fish, if we produce that at large, more demand
      of fish will rise.</p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'>• Knowledge of nutrition should be given to masses such as fish is the cheapest source of protein.</p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'> • Promotion of cage culture to increase fish production.</p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'> • Reduce the cost of production through application of technology.</p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'>• There should be a feeling of cooperation instead of competition; the goal if of becoming Aatma
      Nirbhar.</p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'>• Be vocal for local for global outreach by PM Modi; we can apply this concept in the fish industry
      too.</p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'><b>ASSOCHAM\&apos;s view over the topic:</b></p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'>In the current time and situation, amidst unprecedented contraction of the economy and large scale
      destruction of the livelihoods, a market changed pattern of the consumption can be observed clearly.
      Another challenge which we are facing is the proper opening of the industries and also a massive
      labour shortage due to migration in pandemic. If we focus on the fisheries and aquaculture industry,
      we will find that 14 million people are employed currently in the industry, out of which 90% of women
      are involved in certain states. This employment of fishermen is at stake and they are finding it really
      hard to sustain in current pandemic. Hence, the industry of fisheries and aquaculture needs a huge
      investment, which can do a lot of value addition to the sector. Also, we at ASSOCHAM welcomes
      the Government of India&apos;s Scheme -PMMSY - Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana- We are
      sure of the fact that a package of 20,000 crore rupees by the Union Government of India for the
      fisheries and aquaculture industry will help the industry retracting the economy and employment.</p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'>Another aspect is the application of technology to the industry. Use of technology for fish production
      can not only save time, money and other resources but also can save a lot of human lives from
      contaminating them from virus. Sadly, we see a lack of technology in the industry. Coming up with
      technology for fish farming such as Biofloc fish farming and RAS technology is the need of the hour.
      We also need to propel innovative approaches for bringing more productivity and quality in the sector
      of fisheries and aquaculture such as Crab Farming, Ornamental fish farming, Circulatory Aqua System, Cage Culture, breeding of indigenous aquatic species etc. The cost of production will also be
      suspended with the application of technology to the sector. Another thing which we as a fishery and
      aquaculture industry need is to come up with the development of more number of artificial ponds so
      as to promote the production aquaculture at local level.</p>
      <p style='text-align:justify;'> Our focus should also be to promote the consumption of fishery and aquaculture products domestically. If exports are hit by any reason, whether it may be pandemic or natural calamity, then we as a
      nation may have the capacity to consume the fish products, domestically. This will not hamper the
      potential of fish production of our country. Last but not the least, we not only need better quality of
      the fisheries, aquaculture and other value added products, but we also need the consistency in the
      supply of these products. A robust supply chain is the need of the hour to meet the demand of the
      consumer. In such challenging times, it is very difficult to transport the products from on part of the
      country to another part of the country, but we need to come up with some technique and procedure
      so that we as a supply chain sector can overcome all the problems which comes our way from
      producers to consumers. ASSOCHAM is always focused for the betterment and bringing quality to
      the industry of fisheries and aquaculture.</p>