Secure Fishing

The fishery sector’s contribution to India’s Gross Domestic Product is more than one percent with exports worth US$ 4.5 billion. Majority of Indian fisherfolk are involved in small-scale fishing as a sole source of income. The sector is often overlooked and suffers from lesser production, stagnating yields, and post-harvest losses estimated at 15–20 percent annually, causing annual losses of up to 25 percent. The lives and livelihoods of the small-scale marine fishers are often challenged  by unpredictable weather, risky zones in the sea, lack of information on potential fishing zones, quality fish processing, limited capacities of inland fishing during dry seasons, poor knowledge and capacity on value addition and storage, and a lack of market knowledge.

WFP will leverage its expertise and experience in India to work with the private sector and the State Government of Odisha to a develop a technology-based application called ‘Secure Fishing’ that will benefit the fishing community, improving their livelihoods and sustainably breaking the cycle of poverty and food insecurity.

The ‘Secure Fishing’ application will make use of the high penetration of mobile and digital technologies for safe and efficient fishing operations providing the information in a format understandable by the community (using a combination of written, video and audio messages in the local language). The application will help enhance safety of lives and assets and improve income through improved productivity by indicating routes and areas for fishing. The capacity building through this initiative will enable environment protection through avoiding excessive fishing. The app is also expected to help maximise profits through cost reduction, access to government schemes and market utilisation. 

Since launch, about 3,500 users have downloaded the Secure Fishing app. Users of the Secure Fishing app have seen a 25 percent increase in their catch, even when using the app for a brief period.