CHENNAI: A national policy for fishermen, on the lines of the National Farmer Policy, was on the anvil and the revised draft was being finalised, M. S. Swaminathan, chairman, National Commission for Farmers and chairman, M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), said here on Thursday.

Despite several efforts, there was no policy for the development of local fisheries, he said and called for a focus on technology, infrastructure, training and trade in the sector. He was inaugurating a two-day national workshop on `Stakeholders' appraisal of the vital missing links in coastal aquaculture development,' organised jointly by the Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture and Coastal Aquaculture Society of India.

The MSSRF would soon open a training centre, `Fish for All,' at Poompuhar and it would offer training, right from the stage of "capture to consumption," in sustainable fisheries. It would be a prototype for other centres to be set up in coastal India, and would make use of information technology to disseminate information. It was imperative to set up a National Fisheries Development Board and expedite reforms for coastal/brackishwater/inland aquaculture, Mr. Swaminathan added.

Integrated approach

A large number of missing links existed in policy, technology and quality control in aquaculture and it was necessary to adopt an integrated approach to enhance production and productivity, G. Mohan Kumar, chairman, Marine Products Export Development Authority, said.

Fishermen had a major role in promoting aquaculture and, at the moment, there was neither adequate marketing support nor infrastructure, M. Sakthivel, president, Aquaculture Foundation of India, said.

A network of automatic monitoring systems was needed to check the status of aquaculture systems and forecast dangers due to viral infections and marine pollution.

A. G. Ponniah, director, CIBA, was also present on the occasion.

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