India moves to development phase of national action plan for inland small-scale fisheries

1. At a Glance

• India has started the development phase of a separate National Plan of Action (NPOA) for inland small-scale fisheries. It focuses on livelihoods, better coordination and better management of freshwater resources. [1]
• The plan is being drafted under the framework of the UN FAO. It is led by the Union Department of Fisheries together with the Bay of Bengal Programme Inter-Governmental Organisation (BOBP-IGO). [1]
• An NPOA-SSF is FAO's recommended way for countries to put the SSF Guidelines (2014) into practice. FAO describes it as a participatory mechanism involving many partners. [2]
• Why it matters for UPSC: it covers the blue economy, inland fisheries (about three-fourths of India's fish output), climate resilience, gender, and India's regional leadership role. [1][5]

2. Why in the News

• 23 Oct 2026: Fisheries Secretary Dr Abhilaksh Likhi formally launched the development phase at a two-day national workshop in Bhopal. [1]
• He called for mission-mode outreach to fishing communities. He also announced a target of 30 million tonnes of fish production in the next 5 years and seafood exports of ₹1.25 lakh crore. [1]
• The plan will be finalised through stakeholder consultations. Its public launch is due next month (Nov 2026), followed by implementation. [1]

3. Background & Evolution

• 2014: The FAO Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries (SSF Guidelines) were endorsed at the 31st session of FAO's Committee on Fisheries (COFI). [2]
• FAO then recommended that countries draw up NPOAs to implement the Guidelines. [2]
• Examples from other countries: Tanzania (NPoA, June 2021, work plan 2021–25) [9]; Uganda (Aug 2023) [10]; Philippines (Nov 2024), described by FAO as the first NPOA-SSF in Asia. [2]
• 13th BOBP-IGO Governing Council, Malé (Maldives): India took over the chairmanship of BOBP-IGO. [5]
• 2020: PMMSY was launched. It targeted 220 lakh tonnes of fish by 2024–25, up from 137.58 lakh tonnes in 2018–19, with an investment of more than ₹20,000 crore over 5 years. [8]
• 2025: FAO and BOBP-IGO signed a Letter of Agreement for regional capacity-building. [3]
• 17–19 Sep 2025: A regional workshop in Chennai brought together Bangladesh, India, Maldives and Sri Lanka. The four countries began drafting NPOAs-SSF and produced national roadmaps. [4]
• Oct 2026: India launched the development phase of an inland-specific NPOA in Bhopal. [1]

4. Core Static Facts

Item	Fact
Lead body	Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying [1]
Partners	BOBP-IGO (technical partner); FAO (framework) [1]
Parent instrument	FAO SSF Guidelines, endorsed at COFI-31 in 2014; they are voluntary, not binding [2]
Ecosystems covered	Rivers, canals, reservoirs, lakes, floodplain wetlands, tanks, cold-water systems [1]
Thematic areas (development phase)	Fishing rights and resource management; employment and decent work; gender equality; value chains and post-harvest trade; disaster risk and climate change [1]
SSF Guidelines themes	Tenure, disaster risk and climate change, gender, value chains, social development, sustainable resource management [2]
Current fish production	19.7 MT (197.75 lakh tonnes in 2024–25, a record); inland share is about three-fourths [1][7]
Growth	141.64 lakh tonnes (2019–20) → 197.75 lakh tonnes (2024–25), about 38% [6][7]
Seafood exports	More than ₹70,000 crore now; target ₹1.25 lakh crore [1]
Production target	30 MT in 5 years [1]
Top 5 inland-producing states	Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha [6]
Aquaculture productivity	About 3 t/ha before PMMSY → about 4.7 t/ha (early 2025) [6]
PMMSY inland approvals	52,058 reservoir cages; 23,285.06 ha of pond area [6]
Key officials	Dr Abhilaksh Likhi (Secretary, DoF); Dr P. Krishnan (Director, BOBP-IGO); Giulia Gorelli (FAO Project Officer) [1]

5. Multi-Dimensional Analysis

Economic

• Inland fisheries supply about three-fourths of India's output, so they are the main driver of the 30 MT target. [1]
• Growth has come mainly from inland aquaculture expansion. [6]
• The Secretary said production and export growth must go together with secure livelihoods for small-scale fishers, partly by strengthening value chains. [1]

Social

• Gender equality and decent work are explicit themes. [1]
• The plan relies on community consultation. It is meant to deliver "practical improvements in livelihoods rather than remain confined to government offices". [1]
• An NPOA-SSF is designed to be participatory and multi-partner. [2]

Environmental

• Climate change and declining water quality, including falling dissolved oxygen, were flagged as major threats. [1]
• The plan is to build climate resilience by drawing on fishers' own experience. [1]
• It covers fragile ecosystems such as floodplain wetlands and cold-water systems. [1]

Geopolitical / Strategic

• India chairs BOBP-IGO. [5] It is shaping SSF policy alongside Bangladesh, Maldives and Sri Lanka. [4]
• India has offered its diverse inland sector to FAO as a model for piloting region-specific approaches. [1]

Governance / Administrative

• Fisheries is mostly a State subject, so consultations and region-specific approaches are needed. MP's Fisheries Secretary took part. [1]
• The process uses National Task Forces, legal and policy diagnostics, and stakeholder mapping. [4]
• Tenure and fishing rights over inland water bodies are a central governance issue. [1][2]

6. Recent Developments (last 12–18 months)

• Sep 2025: The FAO–BOBP-IGO regional workshop in Chennai (17–19 Sep) produced national roadmaps. [3][4]
• Sep 2025: PIB marked 5 years of PMMSY. [6]
• Dec 2025: PIB reported fish production of 197.75 lakh tonnes (provisional), about 38% above 2019–20. [6]
• Sep 2026: PIB's "Fueling the Blue Economy" note confirmed 197.75 lakh tonnes as the record for 2024–25. [7]
• 23 Oct 2026: The development phase of the inland NPOA was launched in Bhopal. [1]
• Nov 2026 (expected): Public launch of the NPOA. [1]

7. Prelims Hooks

• The NPOA for small-scale inland fisheries is being developed under the FAO framework. [1]
• Implementing partner: BOBP-IGO, not BOBLME or IORA. [1]
• The development-phase workshop was held in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. [1]
• The SSF Guidelines were endorsed at COFI-31 in 2014. [2]
• The SSF Guidelines are voluntary, not a binding treaty. [2]
• FAO describes the Philippines as the first Asian country to launch an NPOA-SSF (Nov 2024). [2]
• India took over the BOBP-IGO chairmanship at the 13th Governing Council in Malé. [5]
• India's fish production in 2024–25 was a record 197.75 lakh tonnes (about 19.7 MT). [1][7]
• Inland fisheries provide about 75% of India's fish production. [1]
• Target: 30 MT of fish and ₹1.25 lakh crore in seafood exports in about 5 years. [1]
• The NPOA covers cold-water systems and floodplain wetlands as well as rivers and reservoirs. [1]
• Top inland fish producer among the listed states: Andhra Pradesh, followed by WB, UP, Bihar, Odisha. [6]
• PMMSY's original target was 220 lakh tonnes by 2024–25 (set in 2020). [8]
• Aquaculture productivity under PMMSY is about 4.7 t/ha. [6]

8. Two Kinds of Fishing Want the Same Water

• Most of the new fish comes from fish farming, not from small fishers
• India's fish output grew about 38% in five years. The government says most of this came from inland aquaculture (fish farming in ponds, tanks and cages) [6].
• PMMSY has approved 52,058 cages in reservoirs [6]. Cage culture means fish are raised in floating net cages, which need money, feed and equipment.

• A traditional small-scale fisher catches wild fish with a net or boat. This is called capture fishing, and it needs open access to the same reservoir.

• So the 30 MT target and the livelihood goal can pull in opposite directions

• The fastest way to raise output is more cages and more intensive farming. That favours people who can invest money.
• A poor fisher can lose space in the reservoir to cages without anyone breaking a rule.
• The Secretary said production growth must go with secure livelihoods [1]. The NPOA is the place where that promise has to become actual rules on who gets space.

9. Who Holds the Lease Decides Who Gains

• Tenure is the real question, not technology
• Tenure means the right to use a water body: who may fish there, for how long, and on what terms.
• FAO says tenure arrangements decide whether and how people benefit from inland fisheries [12].

• The SSF Guidelines list tenure as a core theme [2], but they are voluntary, so no State is bound by them.

• India's own model rules still allow open bidding

• The Centre's Guidelines for Reservoir Fisheries Management (2025) let States lease reservoirs by open bidding or give the lease to the local fishing community [11].
• In open bidding, the highest bidder wins. A local fishers' cooperative usually cannot outbid a contractor with capital.

• The guidelines give Fisheries Cooperative Societies (FCS) preference only for small reservoirs [11]. For cage farming they say community groups "may be preferred", which is advice, not a rule [11].

• The risk is already documented worldwide

• A civil-society monitoring report on FAO's Tenure Guidelines found small-scale fishers facing land and resource grabbing and forced evictions [13].
• If India's NPOA does not settle leasing rules, a plan for small fishers can end up helping bigger investors.

10. Why the Fisheries Department Cannot Fix the River Alone

• Dams and barrages cut fish off from their breeding routes
• After the Farakka Barrage was commissioned in 1975, hilsa could no longer migrate up the Ganga. Hilsa numbers in the middle and upper river fell sharply, and so did the income of fishers who depended on it [14].

• NMCG says less water flow, too much water drawn from rivers and barriers that break up rivers have caused steady falls in hilsa, golden mahseer and other species [15].

• The tools to fix this sit in another ministry

• Water flow, barrages and pollution are handled by the Jal Shakti ministry and by pollution control bodies, not by the Department of Fisheries.
• The NPOA's five themes cover rights, jobs, gender, value chains and climate [1]. None of them is about river flow or dam design.

• Falling dissolved oxygen (the oxygen in water that fish breathe) was flagged as a major threat [1]. Fisheries officers can report it, but they cannot stop the sewage or low flow that causes it.

• Repair is possible, but it is slow and costly

• Under Namami Gange, ICAR-CIFRI has released hilsa above the barrage (river ranching). Hilsa has been seen again near Chandauli, UP, after decades [14].
• This is the government's own report of early success. It shows the damage can be partly reversed, but only through years of joint work across departments.

11. Can the 30 MT Target Be Trusted?

• The last big target was missed

• In 2020, PMMSY aimed for 220 lakh tonnes by 2024–25 [8]. Actual output was 197.75 lakh tonnes, about 22 lakh tonnes short [7].

• The new target needs faster growth than India has ever managed

• Going from 197.75 lakh tonnes to 300 lakh tonnes (30 MT) in five years means a rise of about 52%.
• In the last five years, output rose about 38% [6][7].

• So growth must be clearly faster than in the PMMSY years, from a bigger base.

• Why this matters for small fishers

• When a target is this hard, officials push the quickest source of growth, which is intensive farming.
• That can push the slower, livelihood-focused parts of the NPOA down the priority list.

12. Is This Plan More Than Paper?

• The strongest objection
• The SSF Guidelines are voluntary [2]. Fisheries is mostly a State subject [1].

• So the Centre cannot force any State to change its leasing rules or give fishers secure rights. The plan could become one more document that changes nothing on the ground.

• What is right about this objection

• The Centre's own reservoir guidelines are only a model for States, and their pro-community parts are mostly worded as advice [11].

• Nothing in the launch announcement mentions a budget, a legal change or a monitoring body [1].

• Why the plan can still matter

• It opens a structured process with National Task Forces, legal and policy diagnostics and stakeholder mapping [4]. That puts the States' leasing laws under review.
• Tanzania's NPOA came with a fixed work plan for 2021–25 [9]. A dated plan like this lets anyone check whether promises were kept.
• The plan will only have real force if India adds a work plan with dates, money tied to central schemes like PMMSY, and public reporting by each State.

13. What Should Happen Next, and Who Should Do It

• Department of Fisheries: tie PMMSY money to fair leasing
• The reservoir guidelines already give small-reservoir priority to Fisheries Cooperative Societies [11].

• The Centre can make PMMSY cage and reservoir funding depend on States giving first right to local cooperatives and SHGs on all reservoirs, not just small ones.

• Department of Fisheries with Jal Shakti and NMCG: add a river-health strand

• The NPOA should include river flow and fish passage, building on the hilsa ranching work under Namami Gange [14][15].

• Centre: act on the Parliamentary Standing Committee's 2024 report

• The Standing Committee on fisheries (2024) said fisheries employs about 28 million people directly [16].
• It asked for more investment in post-harvest processing and exports to create jobs, and a separate fisheries research council outside ICAR [16].

• Post-harvest value chains are already an NPOA theme [1]. The NPOA can turn these recommendations into action.

• Department of Fisheries and BOBP-IGO: publish a dated work plan and progress reports

• Follow Tanzania's model of a time-bound work plan [9]. As BOBP-IGO chair [5], India can make its own NPOA the example for Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Maldives [4].

14. Anchors for Answers

• Data: 197.75 lakh tonnes of fish in 2024–25, a record, but below PMMSY's 220 lakh-tonne target [7][8]
• Data: Fisheries employs about 28 million people directly and adds 6.7% of agricultural GVA (gross value added, the value the sector creates) [16]
• Data: 30 MT target needs about 52% growth in five years, against about 38% in the last five [6][7]
• Report/Committee: Parliamentary Standing Committee on Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying, report on employment and revenue potential of fisheries (2024): more post-harvest investment and a separate research council [16]
• Report/Committee: Guidelines for Reservoir Fisheries Management (DoF, 2025): open bidding or community lease; priority to Fisheries Cooperative Societies only in small reservoirs [11]
• Comparison: Tanzania's NPOA (2021) came with a fixed 2021–25 work plan; the Philippines launched Asia's first NPOA-SSF in 2024 [9][2]
• Comparison: Farakka Barrage (1975) cut hilsa migration up the Ganga; ranching under Namami Gange has brought hilsa back near Chandauli [14]
• Scheme: PMMSY: 52,058 reservoir cages approved; most growth comes from aquaculture, which raises the question of who gets reservoir space [6]
• Scheme: Namami Gange: river ranching and conservation of native fish stocks [14][15]

15. Mains Relevance

• GS-III: Economy (fisheries as an allied sector, blue economy, food processing and value chains); Environment (climate change, wetlands, water quality).
• GS-II: Government policies and interventions for vulnerable sections; international institutions (FAO, BOBP-IGO).
• GS-I: Distribution of resources; social empowerment (women in fisheries).
• Question stems: 1. Inland fisheries contribute three-fourths of India's fish output yet small-scale inland fishers remain among the most vulnerable. Examine how a National Plan of Action under the FAO SSF Guidelines can address this paradox. 2. Discuss the impact of climate change and water-quality decline on India's inland fisheries and suggest measures to build resilience among fishing communities. 3. Evaluate PMMSY's performance against its targets and the role of tenure rights in sustainable fisheries governance.

16. Related Topics to Study Next

• PMMSY: the main fisheries scheme, with production and productivity data. [6][8]
• FAO SSF Guidelines and COFI: the parent international instrument. [2]
• BOBP-IGO: India's chairmanship and regional fisheries cooperation. [5]
• Blue Economy / Deep Ocean Mission: links between marine and inland fisheries policy.
• Ramsar wetlands and floodplain ecosystems: inland fishery habitats and their conservation.
• Namami Gange / river fish ranching: river ecology and inland fish stocks.
• Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund (FIDF) and Kisan Credit Card for fishers: credit and infrastructure for small fishers.
• Women in agriculture and allied sectors: the gender theme of the NPOA.

17. NCERT Concepts to Revise

• Fisheries (Economy): The whole note is about inland fisheries, which supply about three-fourths of India's fish output.
• Aquaculture (Geography): Most of the 38% output growth came from fish farming in ponds, tanks and cages.
• Blue economy (Economy): The note links fisheries growth and the 30 MT target to the blue economy.
• Cooperative society (Polity): Fisheries Cooperative Societies get lease preference in reservoirs, central to the tenure and fair-access argument.
• Productivity (Economy): PMMSY tracks aquaculture productivity (3 to 4.7 t/ha), which is a key measure of the scheme's success.
• Standing committee (Polity): The 2024 Parliamentary Standing Committee report on fisheries is cited as an anchor for answers.

18. Common Errors / Trap Areas

• Ministry: The Department of Fisheries sits under the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying, not the Ministry of Agriculture or MoEFCC. [1]
• BOBP-IGO vs BOBLME vs BIMSTEC: they are different bodies. BOBP-IGO is the intergovernmental fisheries organisation that India chairs. [5]
• "Launched" vs "development phase": On 23 Oct 2026 only the development phase began. The plan itself is due for public launch later. [1]
• Marine vs inland: This NPOA is specifically for inland small-scale fisheries. Inland, not marine, dominates India's output. [1]
• Production figures: 195 lakh tonnes (Sep 2025) was later revised to 197.75 lakh tonnes. PMMSY's 220 lakh-tonne target was not met. [6][7][8]