CII in association with the Ministry of Agriculture & Famers’ Welfare, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying and Ministry of Food Processing Industries organized a Virtual International Food & Agri Week 2020. As a part of this mega event, a Conference on Sustainable, Technology led and Responsible development of Fisheries Sector-The Next Level of Growth with YES BANK as the knowledge partner was conducted.
The conference witnessed participation from policy makers, think tanks, industry stalwarts, researchers and the academia who talked about the potential of the Indian fisheries sector, current challenges, opportunity to boost our seafood exports and innovation for safe & sustainable fisheries management.A knowledge report titled “Indian Fisheries Sector: Achieving the Next Level of Growth” co-authored by CII and YES BANK was released during the Conference.
The panel discussions during the conference deliberated upon three important aspects of the sector- Leveraging Government Support in Fisheries Sector with a special focus on the Pradhan Mantri Matsya SAMPADA Yojana; Doubling Indian Fisheries Export and Domestic Industry by 2025 and Technology Innovations for safe and sustainable fisheries management.
Speaking at the occasion, chief guest Dr Rajeev Ranjan, Secretary – Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying emphasized on the potential of the fisheries sector and how the recently launched Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana aims at supporting the entire value chain of this sunrise sector. He also stressed on the need for convergence of efforts by all stakeholders to provide the much-required boost to the fisheries sector.
Sreeram Raavi, Conference Co-Chairman & Founder, Eruvaka Technologies empahsized on the need for technology interventions in the fisheries sector to bring about the much required traceability & better price discovery for the fishermen.
Tarun Shridhar, Former Secretary-Dairy & Fisheries stressed on the need for data management that will subsequently lead to better policy making. He also emphasized on increasing the domestic consumption along with enhanced production, productivity and exports.
Parthsarathi Trivedi CEO & Co-Founder Skylo technologies Inc. said that data and connectivity will play a critical role in transforming the fisheries sector specially on three fronts: Safety, Productivity and Sustainability.
Nitin Puri, Group President and Global Head, Food and Agri Strategic Advisory and Research Group, YES BANK said that there is great opportunity to diversify our commercial species, enhance value addition & streamline domestic value chains to double our size in the global and domestic markets. Government support, industry enterprise & startup innovations are driving demand and supply side innovations and investments, which will eventually help us achieve the targeted growth number in the next 5-6 years.
