Country’s first fisheries business incubator launched

Gurugram

Parshottam Rupala, the Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, on November 16 inaugurated the country’s first-of-its-kind, dedicated fisheries business incubator to be known as LINAC-NCDC Fisheries Business Incubation Centre (LIFIC) in Haryana’s Gurugram. Costing Rs 3.23 crore, LIFIC will nurture fisheries start-ups under real market-led conditions.

Stating that the Centre will serve as a ‘milestone’ in future for the fisheries sector, Rupala said that the incubation unit will provide handholding such as training, converting entrepreneurial ideas into business models and doling out seed money to the new as well as existing business entrepreneurs keen to make big in the segment.

To begin with, the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC), an implementing agency for the LIFIC, has identified the first batch of ten incubatees from four states — Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra. Out of them, six are from newly-created Fish Farmers Producer Organizations (FFPOs).

“Unlike in the dairy sector, cooperative societies are yet to make their presence felt in the fisheries segment. That is why a separate Ministry of Cooperation has been established so that cooperatives in various sectors including fisheries get a boost and help attain the Prime Minister’s vision of achieving Atmanirbhata (self-reliance). Also, in this direction, we will soon start a drive to provide credit cards on the line of Kisan Credit Cards (KCCs) to the fishermen and those involved in the livestock business as well,” said the Union Minister.

Dr L Murugan, Minister of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, said that the Centre would ensure that the fisheries sector did not function as business as usual but helped push the income of the stakeholders.

Fisheries is a sunrise industry in India, growing at 7 per cent annually. The Prime Minister has set a goal of 22 million tonnes of fish production and export to the tune of Rs 1 lakh crore by 2025. It is a very tall order to be achieved within the next four years given that presently, fish production is 130 lakh tonnes and export worth Rs 46,000 crore.

“Setting up this first of business incubation centre for fisheries in India is a step in this direction to achieve the ambitious goal. We need to work on the promotion of lots of innovation for startups, incentives and encourage cooperatives in the fisheries sector to achieve the targets,” said Jatindra Nath Swain, Union Fisheries Secretary.

“It’s a purely business centre and not merely a technology centre or accelerator,” NCDC MD Sundeep Nayak said about the newly launched Centre. He added this unique initiative shall primarily focus on converting entrepreneurial ideas into business models and then support the launch of business operations.

On the occasion, Rupala also inaugurated Sardar Patel Auditorium at the LINAC premises.

Those present at the event, among others, were former Union fisheries Secretary Dr Rajeev Ranjan, NFDB Chief Executive Dr C Suvarna,  Director of NEDAC Bangkok Dr KR Salin, and Ramesh Vaidya, National President from Sahakar Bharti.