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. 2023 Jan 10;31(3):1583–1605. doi: 10.1007/s10499-022-01040-0

Impacts of COVID-19-induced lockdown and key reforms in the Indian fisheries sector—a stakeholders’ perspective

Mukesh Parasram Bhendarkar 1, Bhaskar Bharat Gaikwad 1, Amol Kamalakar Bhalerao 2, Ankush Lala Kamble 3, K Viswanatha Reddy 4, Sreekanth Giri Bhavan 5,✉, R Sendhil 6, P Ramasundaram 7, Sonal Rajendra Kalbande 1
PMCID: PMC9838484  PMID: 36687778

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic-induced lockdown has indisputably affected the aquaculture industry across the globe. India imposed a nationwide lockdown to contain the outbreak of COVID-19 that disrupted normalcy and economic activities. The fisheries sector was also highly affected. Hence, a study was conducted from July to December 2020 to understand the stakeholders’ perception of the impact of COVID-19 lockdown, wherein 517 stakeholders participated (online) in the first stage. The policy reforms suggested by the stakeholders were referred to the fisheries experts in the second stage for prioritization towards implementation. Data analysis depicted that a majority (81%) of the stakeholders were aware of COVID-19 lockdown impacts on their businesses. Due to this unprecedented lockdown, labour availability was hampered, transport facilities were fully halted and access to inputs like seed, feed, and advisory were largely affected. Importantly, all stakeholders unanimously adduced to the uncertainty over the future of the fisheries sector. Moreover, fishery experts feel that enabling policies for the promotion of awareness, appropriate training, and transparency in the implementation of schemes, credit facilities, and price regulation can have a massive positive impact. Furthermore, the study also recommends utilizing the potential of e-resources (ICTs and IoT) to digitize the business networking of fishery sector stakeholders.

Keywords: COVID-19 impact, Fisheries sector, India, Lockdown, Policy reforms, Stakeholders

Introduction

Human civilization is currently witnessing the vilest public health crisis in recent history in form of the COVID-19 pandemic. This pandemic has adversely affected almost all segments of the global economy including the fisheries sector. National level, as well as global, initiatives are being implemented to contain the rapid spread of COVID-19. India’s response to contain the COVID-19 with a lockdown from 24 March 2020 across the country stopped all non-essential activities and transport. Besides, the pandemic has acquainted the Indian economy with new challenges. The agricultural sector witnessed a decline in growth by 2.5% points owing to the incidence of COVID-19 (Cariappa et al. 2021). Subsequently, the Government of India brought the agricultural sector under the essential categories which lowered impacts on the agri-food sector (KPMG 2020).

The COVID-19 disease is not known to infect aquatic animals used as food nor contaminate their products (Bondad-Reantaso et al. 2020). However, the sector has found itself being influenced by the indirect effects of the pandemic, primarily due to reduced consumer demand, restricted market access, logistic issues related to transportation, and border restrictions (FAO 2020; Ruth 2021). These restrictions have negatively impacted fisheries and aquaculture unit operations from seed and feed supply, processing, export, demand for fish, aquatic ecosystem, and population of productive species (Jamwal and Phulia 2020). These stringent restrictions not only affected the gross domestic product (GDP) but also hampered the livelihoods of millions of people who are dependent on the fisheries sector. The blue economy and especially the small-scale fisheries sector in India have dwindled due to disruptions in the fish catch, market, and supply chain (Avtar et al. 2021). This sector is extremely diverse, both freshwater and marine, but it relies heavily on labour, key inputs, financing, and markets, which have been socioeconomically dependent on other sectors (Cochrane 2021) and will continue to be impacted during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, a survey-based study was implemented to explore the impact of COVID-19-induced lockdown on the fisheries sector of India. This paper attempts to answer the following research questions.

  • i.

    Whether the stakeholders of the fishery sector experience difficulties due to the COVID-19-induced lockdown?

  • ii.

    If yes, then what kind of challenges was experienced by the stakeholders?

  • iii.

    Whether the post-COVID-19 lockdown situation will be favourable or unfavourable for the fisheries sector?

  • iv.

    Which policy reforms and technological interventions are needed to support the sector?

This is a novel study to understand the perspective of stakeholders involved in fisheries sector-related businesses. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, several studies have shown the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on human health and the economy (Tandon 2020; Singh et al. 2021). However, very few studies have focused on understanding the stakeholders’ perspective to support policy-making for the fisheries sector amid the COVID-19 scenario. Bhendarkar et al. (2021) anticipated the impact of the COVID-19 lockdowns on the Indian fisheries sector based on views of experts from fisheries sector; however, this study missed taking stakeholders perspective into consideration, thereby reflecting one-sided outlook towards the situation. Therefore, this study intended to use bottom-up approach in understanding the stakeholders’ perspective by systematically gathering their feedback and then using top-down approach for suggesting policy reforms to curb the adverse socioeconomic impacts on the fishery-dependent communities.

Material and methods

To understand the stakeholders’ perspective, we used an ex-post facto design of social research. A pilot study was planned and as per the objectives, a questionnaire was designed and it was administered to appropriate stakeholders.

Questionnaire development

A semi-structured questionnaire was designed for this study, with close and open-ended questions. This facilitated us to get objective data and subjective information from the stakeholders. The questionnaire was designed by a team of experts comprising fisheries sciences, social sciences, and agricultural science from diversified organizations, pre-tested, and translated into three different languages (Marathi, English, and Hindi) before embarking upon an online survey to ease the information collected from different stakeholders.

The questionnaire was a brief document with 23 questions. The first section sought personal information of the stakeholder (gender, age, location, experience, and education level), and the second section on the occupational background and professional involvement of stakeholders in the fisheries and aquaculture sector. The third section concentrated on major issues and challenges faced by the stakeholders concerning activities such as market demand, sales, supply of seed, transportation, technical support, and availability of essential inputs like feed, and medicine to cite a few. The fourth section probed into anticipated impacts on marine fishing—production, trade, employment, export–import, and water pollution. The last section enquired about the relevance of prevailing government policies meant for the fisheries sector and their adequacy for fishery businesses in dealing with pandemics or crises. In addition, it was crucial to prioritize the policy reforms suggested by the stakeholders. Hence, in the second round, a separate questionnaire was designed with 12 items of reforms derived from the stakeholders. This digitized questionnaire was sent via Google form (Annexure 1) to the experts and they were requested to respond on a seven-point rating scale. This second round with experts was intended to prioritize the policy reforms for implementation and also to validate the stakeholder responses.

Questionnaire administration

Fisheries are one of the major sectors in India, employing 14.5 million people. India ranks second in aquaculture and third in fisheries production. However, it has several key components in the production line including fishermen, wholesalers, retailers, and exporters along with research and development departments in the fisheries sector. For this study, key actors along the fisheries value chain were identified by authors in the first round. During the COVID-19 pandemic, face-to-face interviews were quite impossible. Therefore, the authors preferred to proceed with non-probabilistic sampling, and the timeframe to collect data from the stakeholders spanned from July 2020 to December 2020. A snowball sampling technique was chosen for the study with digitized form links of questionnaires prepared in a way for the respondents to record their perceptions and opinions were sent to the stakeholders via email or/and WhatsApp with a request to forward to relevant stakeholders in their group. Reminders were sent to the respondents in the first round to forward the links to the concerned stakeholders to get the data. To prevent multiple responses from a single person, an option to submit another response in the google form was disabled.

By the end of December 2020, responses of 586 stakeholders were collected using the snowball sampling technique. After scrutiny, 517 responses were deemed fit for analysis. The survey responses were collected according to the ethical and methodological concerns of human research ethics committees by Buchanan and Hvizdak (2009). Furthermore, the second round of questionnaires was administered to the experts in April 2021. A link for the questionnaire was sent to the pre-identified 35 experts and 20 responses were received of which only 18 were fit for further analysis.

Data collection and information analysis

This survey data includes both quantitative and qualitative information with detailed narrative and numeric outcomes. Data from the online survey were exported and analyzed in SPSS Version 24. The quantitative information was analyzed using descriptive statistics, and inferences were drawn from the graphs and tables. Additionally, qualitative data/information was analyzed using the systematic content analysis method. In addition, the reforms suggested by stakeholders were circulated among the experts for prioritization across four attributes, namely (A) priority of implementation, (B) perceived impact on implementation, (C) ease of implementation, and (D) funding requirement on a seven-point rating scale. Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) weighing method was used to calculate the weights of these four attributes in the weighted sum model (WSM) to determine the most noteworthy reforms for the fisheries sector in the future (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1.

Fig. 1

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Prioritization of suggested reforms using Analytical Hierarchy Process

Results and discussion

This section presents the salient findings of our survey and the interpretation of the results. The first sub-section within is focused on discussing the socioeconomic circumstances of participating stakeholders. Various fish types considered by respondents while responding to this study are presented in the subsequent sub-section. The next sub-sections show perception of stakeholders of COVID-19 lockdown as a major stressor for the fishery sector and also deal with the challenges faced by the stakeholders followed by dovetailing the economic losses incurred by fish farmers. In the next sub-section, the relevance and appropriateness of governmental policies to support the fisheries sector after the COVID-19 pandemic has been highlighted, followed by the sub-section that canvases the stakeholders’ perspective on the impacts anticipated on the fisheries sector after the COVID-19 lockdown. The last sub-section discusses the need-based interventions which could be considered for appropriate policy reforms to enhance preparedness during crises such as COVID-19.

Socioeconomic profile of respondents

Fisheries is a sunrise sector in India with varied resources and potential, engaging over 14.50 million people directly at the primary level, and many more along the value chain of which 80% are small-scale fishers (DAHDF 2019). The fisheries sector accounts for 1.03% of India’s GDP. Importantly, it accounts for about 6.58% share of India’s agricultural GDP (DAHDF 2019). Still, agricultural workers experience the highest incidence of working poverty, affecting almost a quarter of the workforce (ILO 2020). Despite playing an important role in national economies, providing a link with the global structures of agricultural production and trade, and feeding the world, many agricultural workers and their families suffer from poverty and food insecurity (ILO 2020). Therefore, it is crucial to understand the socioeconomic profile of stakeholders to suggest appropriate policy interventions.

The socioeconomic conditions of respondents are presented in Table 1. The active age group was 25 to 39 years accounting for 56% of the sample that dominated this survey. The remaining respondents are from the below 25-year age group (around 22%) and 40 to 59 years (i.e. 21%). The sample of this study indicates that a majority of the respondents belong to the active age group which is important for fishery-related activities. In addition, it can also be seen from Table 1 that the sample of this study is dominated by males (84%) and only around 9% of respondents are female stakeholders while the remaining respondents have not answered this question.

Table 1.

Socioeconomic profile of respondents who participated in an online survey (n = 517)

Variables Category Frequency Percent
Age (in years)  < 25 112 21.66
25–39 291 56.29
40–59 109 21.08
60–79 05 0.97
Gender Male 435 84.14
Female 48 9.28
Unanswered 34 6.58
Education Primary 23 4.45
Secondary 128 24.76
Graduate 332 64.22
Unanswered 34 6.58
Language Marathi 209 40.43
Hindi 135 26.11
English 173 33.46
Experience (association with fisheries sector in terms of years) Less than 2 years 112 21.66
2 to 5 years 157 30.37
6 to 10 years 154 29.79
11 to 20 years 64 12.38
Above 20 years 30 5.80
Lockdown zone Red 145 28.05
Green 171 33.08
Orange 188 36.36
Not answered 13 2.51
Profession Researcher/policy maker 77 14.89
Farmers 225 43.52
Entrepreneur 33 6.38
Students of fisheries science 103 19.92
Others 15 2.90
Involved in more than one business activity 64 12.38
Business preference for the fishery sector Main 303 58.61
Part-time 73 14.12
Voluntary hobby 72 13.93
Not answered 69 13.35
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Furthermore, a majority of the sample belongs to the higher education group (64%), followed by secondary school education (around 25%). This finding enhances the credibility of respondents and thereby increases the reliability of the results. It is interesting to see that respondents are sampled from three major languages, viz. Marathi (40%), English (33%), and Hindi (26%). The table further shows that a majority of the stakeholders have adequate experience in working with the fisheries sector. Only 21% of respondents possessed less than 2 years of experience, whereas around 30% of stakeholders have 2 to 5 years of experience and almost 30% had 6 to 10 years of association with the fisheries sector. In addition, samples are obtained from all different three zones of lockdown, viz. red (28%), green (33%), and orange (36%). The zones of lockdown are dynamic and keep changing as per the intensity of infection. It is a good indication that an almost uniform number of respondents are obtained from all three zones during the phase of data collection. The above findings of Table 1 signify that adequate representative sample diversity is attained in this data set.

Moreover, fish farming (44%) is the most prominent profession among respondents. Around 20% of the survey’s participants are students of fisheries science, while 15% are researchers and/or policymakers pertaining to the fisheries sector. Similarly, 69% of respondents are mainly engaged in fishery-related business activities, whereas around 14% consider fishery-related business activities to be part-time business, while 14% of respondents said it is a volunteer hobby.

Fish types considered by stakeholders of this survey

The various types of fish considered by respondents are illustrated in Fig. 2 clearly showing that the sample consists of respondents who represent almost all major fish types that dominate the fisheries sector. It is evident from Fig. 1 that around 42% of respondents considered major carps such as catla (Catla catla), rohu (Labeo rohita), mrigal (Cirrhinus cirrhosus), and common carp (Cyprinus carpio) to perceive the impacts of COVID-19 lockdown on India’s fisheries sector.

Fig. 2.

Fig. 2

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Various types of fishes considered by respondents while expressing their perspectives on the impacts of COVID-19 lockdown on the fisheries sector

Inland aquaculture mostly depends on Indian major carp seed, which starts in June, every year. However, the pre-breeding management (Mukesh and Brahmane 2019), viz. monitoring brooders quantity and quality, maintenance of hatchery, preparation of nursery pond, were hampered due to non-availability of labours as they migrated to their native states. This migration happened due to the first phase of the nationwide lockdown. Due to this, a majority of respondents in the sample had felt an impact on the breeding and farming of major carps. The second highest category perceived by respondents is tilapia (18%), followed by Pangasius (17%) farming. In India, recently tilapia and Pangasius farming has been rampantly increasing particularly in cage culture. The respondents also considered other fish types (15%), Roopchanda fish (4%), and lobsters (4%) while answering the survey questions. In this context, Fig. 2 highlights that an adequate variety of fish types was considered by respondents to provide holistic views on impacts experienced by the fisheries sector due to the COVID-19 lockdown. In addition, the authors feel that this diversity of sample is enough to propose policy suggestions to improve the fisheries sector after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Stakeholders’ perception of COVID-19 lockdown

More than 81% of stakeholders perceived COVID-19 lockdown as the most pressing stressor they had ever experienced as evident from Fig. 3. The stakeholders who positively related the economic losses to COVID-19 lockdown perceive it as a major stressor, whereas almost 8.5% chose not to respond to this question, while 8% responded ‘No’ and nearly 2% preferred ‘Others’ as the most pressing stressors for the fisheries sector. These responses emerged from the well-informed stakeholders who still perceive that climate change (global warming), floods, cyclones, and droughts are prominent stressors that can cause massive devastation to the fisheries sector. However, the COVID-19 pandemic created more disruptions for the fisheries sector which caused heavy losses among stakeholders. Due to these irreparable socioeconomic losses, fisheries sector stakeholders felt that the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown was the predominant stressor. Some of the notable consequences of this COVID-19 pandemic are listed below.

Fig. 3.

Fig. 3

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Stakeholders’ perspective on COVID-19 lockdown as one of the most pressing stressors for the fisheries sector of India

In the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, the rumours were that consumption of meat may cause COVID-19 infection. These rumours drastically reduced demand for meat products including fish and severely affected the fisheries sector (Cariappa et al. 2021). A recent study conducted in the USA by White et al. (2021) also reported that the seafood market drastically dropped by 70% due to reduced consumer demand for seafood from restaurants during lockdowns. On the other hand, supply chains were also disrupted because of the non-availability of inputs for fish farming, lack of transportation facilities in lockdown, and labour unavailability due to the migration of labours, as well as fear of COVID-19 infection. One of the most critical challenges for the aquaculture industry’s economic viability is labour mobility between sectors of the local economy (Mente et al. 2007). In addition, auxiliary support industries such as ice factories were also non-functional due to the lockdown regulations leading to the spoilage and wastage of fish products. Due to the repercussions of these consequences, stakeholders felt that COVID-19 is the most damaging stressor for the fisheries sector of India.

Problems experienced by stakeholders during the COVID-19 lockdown

A representation of various problems encountered by respondents during the COVID-19 lockdown period is depicted in Fig. 4. It is clearly depicted that a majority of the respondents is inclined towards uncertainty and it can be seen among all the six dimensions of difficulties faced by fishery-related stakeholders. For all difficulties, stakeholders could not answer the questions (survey items) regarding the constraints experienced by them. In general, the COVID-19 was a global pandemic wherein an unprecedented state of panic was observed among the masses. Citizens were obliged to follow the restrictions imposed by government machinery and were instructed to stay indoors due to lockdown. In this situation, clarity of information was little and citizens experienced perplexing circumstances wherein their daily business activity routine was completely collapsed. Moreover, many respondents could not comprehend the situation of lockdown and respond in a manner to maintain the profitability of their business unit. This could be one of the prime reasons to create uncertainty in the minds of citizens as well as respondents.

Fig. 4.

Fig. 4

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Challenges and bottlenecks experienced by the stakeholders during the COVID-19 lockdown

It is quite interesting to see that the trend depicted in Fig. 4 is more or less uniform for all categories and the sufficiency of productivity factors was unanimously rated at the lowest point in the graph. The COVID-19 lockdown was rigid for the first 3 months (April, May, and June of 2020), and thereafter, various districts were allowed to restore normalcy with COVID-19 guidelines considering the number of cases. This allowed the gradual reopening of business units. However, almost all dimensions of the fishery business experienced adversities. The fisheries sector has been exempted from the lockdown after it was included in the list of essential services (https://www.mha.gov.in/notifications/circulars-covid-19). Though these provisions seem to ease the burden on the industry, the shock wave generated by the lockdown did disturb the supply chain. The exemptions and their implementation are yet to address the complexities of the production and supply chain, such as the regular requirement of ice, farming equipment, food supplements, and fish meal. According to the stakeholders, labour supply, ease of transport, and technical support for the fishery sector were highly affected. Crucial inputs such as fish seeds and fish meal were also scarce during the lockdown.

The peak months for stocking of seeds in the ponds by farmers begin from the month of April in India. The hatcheries too are at their pre-management production phase during this period. Due to closed state borders during lockdown and uncertainty of its normal functioning, the transportation of fish seed from West Bengal and other parts of India has been seriously affected. Many hatcheries have produced the fish seed before the lockdown and kept awaiting transportation facilities. The Government of India launched the “Kisan Rath” mobile app to facilitate the transportation of agricultural produce during the lockdown period and this was picking up momentum. Such transporter aggregator apps, though the best digital initiative possible amid the lockdown, will only partially absorb the negative impact on transportation facilities. Overall scenario clearly shows that there was meagre demand for the fishery-related products as is distinctly visible in Fig. 4.

In India, the demand for fish is driven by the foodservice industry, as well as huge retail or village markets situated especially in the urban area connected by road and rail. The sudden dip in demand for fish has brought into focus the vulnerability of the aquaculture market to such sudden closures forced by a COVID-19 pandemic. The freshwater aquaculture sector, especially in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal, is the worst hit by this supply chain disturbance (Bureau 2020). They have readily marketable fish stocks yet are not able to send them to the market due to a lack of transportation. Furthermore, the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic from the wet market located in the Wuhan province of China that sells fish as well has been fuelling the aversion towards consumption of non-vegetarian food, including fish among the general population. The association of the Wuhan wet market catastrophe with the COVID-19 pandemic is likely the major factor resulting in the significant decline of fish demand, though no scientific study has yet proven the spread of COVID-19 through fish or fish-based products. In case of low demand, the existing fish can survive at their culture sites without being harvested. However, the additional feed needed for their survival increases the food conversion ratio (FCR) above the planned optimum levels, thereby reducing the profitability of the business.

In general, it can be observed that rural parts were a bit faster to restore business operations, whereas the urban areas are still struggling to perform business activities because cases of COVID-19 are still increasing and partial lockdowns are imposed by local administrations. In addition, business operations related to the essential commodities were allowed by administration with proper care and that situation helped the majority of farming-related businesses (vegetable farming, agriculture, dairy, fishery, poultry) to perform optimally. However, the fishery sector businesses continued to experience lesser market demand. This finding calls for the attention of administrators and policymakers to provide support and subsidies for fishery-related businesses.

Economic losses during COVID-19 lockdown

Fish production in recent years has seen a decline that may continue owing to the side effects of the lockdown. The fishermen community, vendors, and labourers are being hit economically particularly due to market closures. Complete lockdown in the harbours and the landing centres has greatly affected the day-to-day earnings and employment of the fisherfolk’s community. The situation is expected to have a further negative impact primarily due to the recent order issued by the Department of Fisheries, Government of India, dated 13 March 2019, which mandates a uniform ban on fishing by all fishing vessels, coupled with the annual fishing ban (15 April to 14 June along the east coast and from 1 June to 31 July along the west coast of India) to protect fishery resources and biodiversity during the breeding season. As a result, the effective fishing days of marine fishermen will reduce and this will directly reduce the total fish catch during 2020 leading to a knock-on effect on supply and demand of fish and fish foods.

The fishermen communities mostly comprise the daily wage members. In India, of the total population of 5.4 million active fishers, 3.8 million are fishermen and 1.6 million are fisherwomen (Bhendarkar et al. 2017a). These fisherwomen are engaged through the several important links in the fishery industry right at the fishing jetty and continue till the fish reaches the buyers’ table (Bhendarkar et al. 2017a). The decline in catch by fishermen and drastically diminished market demand due to lockdown restrictions have reduced the number of wage days of these fishermen communities, particularly the supplemental income generated by the fisherwomen to support their families. This has and will continue to impact the livelihood security and wellbeing of the dependent communities. Since most of the fishermen are less perceptive about modern capture fisheries techniques and totally depend on fishing with traditional gear and craft (Bhendarkar et al. 2017b), the current lockdown effects will displace fishermen to other remunerative work opportunities.

In the survey responses, out of 517 stakeholders, 223 were fish farmers. To understand the economic losses and farmers’ fish marketing behaviour, a question was asked with several choices and responses are presented in Fig. 5. A majority of the farmers (38%) responded that they faced fish marketing issues and sold fish at lower prices than usual market prices. In addition, around 12% of farmers reported that they could not sell their fish and suffered losses. Furthermore, around 30% of farmers tried to avoid losses by selling the fishes at nominal prices in the nearby vicinity. Besides remaining, 20% of farmers preferred not to answer this question or opted for any other arrangement to avoid losses.

Fig. 5.

Fig. 5

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Economic losses experienced by fish farmers because they sold fish products at relatively lower prices. These are the responses only from fish farmers (n = 233). Other stakeholders were excluded

For example, the authors contacted some of the fish farmers over cell phones to get additional information and found that some farmers freely distributed fish to their neighbours and relatives, and some farmers preferred to postpone harvesting of their produce till lockdown was open. Some small farmers used the fish produce for home consumption and also to feed their poultry birds such as ducks. It is clear from Fig. 5 that almost all fish farmers experienced losses and some of them tried to avert losses by exploiting possible alternatives. However, the number of fish farmers who experienced losses due to COVID-19 lockdown is greater than those who tried to avert losses. However, it is noteworthy to mention that in some cases, fish farming businesses were severely damaged before the marketing stage of harvest. According to the All India Shrimp Hatcheries Association, large numbers of seeds have been destroyed in the lockdown, and there is an estimated loss of 15,000 broodstock and 3.5 billion seeds due to their limited life of only 2–3 days (Krishnakumar 2020). Many hatcheries produced seeds of Pangasius and tilapia to cater to the demand of cage culture.

Furthermore, the ornamental fishery segment was also disrupted during the COVID-19 lockdown. The Indian ornamental fish industry was worth US$ 1.06 million and contributed 0.3% of the total export in 2016 (Raja et al. 2019). The ornamental fish industry provides jobs to around 50,000 people through 5000 aquarium retail outlets and an equal number of production units (Vinayak 2018). Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, and Bengaluru are the major consumer cities and backbone of the ornamental fish industries. Since these major cities were under total shutdown and are further likely to happen amid the second wave of COVID-19 cases spike, the ornamental fish industry was also the worst hit sector due to lack of demand. In the ornamental fish retail industry, live food is the single important item that influences the operational cost. The success of aquarium fish breeding and culture unit depends upon a constant supply of live food in its vicinity (Sharma 2020). Due to the disturbed supply chain and demand, the ornamental fish industry has to resync its production rates for profitability. This finding calls for the development of an awareness program for fish farmers on mitigating losses due to unfortunate events like pandemics as well as natural calamities. In addition, these awareness programs shall also link the farmers with institutions for building further capacities to deal with such losses.

Stakeholders’ perception on the relevance of government schemes and reforms suggested by fisheries experts

A question was framed with several options and responses as presented in Fig. 6 to investigate the appropriateness of government policies during the crisis of COVID-19 lockdown. A majority of the stakeholders (almost 34%) believe that they do not have the information on government schemes. This finding is highlighting the need to energize the extension services for fish farmers as the latter do not have the access to basic information about schemes. The advisory services shall be made available to the fishery farmers at their doorsteps because during crises (such as COVID-19 lockdown), physical sources of information like personal visits, exhibitions, farmer fairs, supply of newspapers, and field visits get drastically hampered. Therefore, the use of modern communication technologies such as ICTs and social media to connect with farmers with real-time advisory is essential.

Fig. 6.

Fig. 6

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Stakeholders’ perspective on government schemes (policies) being beneficial during crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic

On the contrary, almost 33% of farmers can perceive the usefulness of government schemes. Though this fraction is less, the use of ICTs and social media can be used to disseminate the success stories among farmers regarding the benefits of government schemes in vernacular language. Once again, the farmer-to-farmer extension and dissemination of information is the key to spread information across the social system of fish farmers. Furthermore, around 20% of stakeholders preferred to say ‘maybe no’ about the usefulness of government schemes and almost 9% preferred not to answer this question.

Around, 8% of respondents proposed some additional reforms to enhance the usefulness of government schemes. However, deciding its usefulness and prioritizing these based on frequency may not be appropriate as the representativeness of snowballed samples is not guaranteed and may have sampling bias. Therefore, expert ratings were invited through an online rating for ranking these suggestive reforms on a seven-point rating scale, across four attributes of (A) priority of implementation, (B) perceived impact on implementation, (C) ease of implementation, and (D) funding requirement. These attributes were given weights using the AHP weighing method as 0.3647, 0.1716, 0.3648, and − 0.0989, respectively. The negative weight represents the minimization objective, while the positive weights represent the maximization objective.

The frequency of suggestions, cumulative scores, priority ranking using weighted sum model, and colour-coded consistency index ranging from 0.8 to 0.51 is presented in Table 2. The stakeholders’ appropriate training was considered to be most important so that they can learn to optimally utilize resources, process their catch, and encourage consumption in the post- COVID-19 era. Timely training from public sector organizations such as ICAR, SAUs, and KVKs can empower stakeholders to go beyond traditional fish farming and look for new alternatives of business such as value addition and processing of raw fish products. The next highest priority sought by stakeholders and also backed by experts is the transparency in the implementation of the government schemes, which hints towards the nepotism and non-transparent practices that need serious note by implementing and monitoring agencies. Furthermore, the promotion and development of fish hatcheries at the local level needs immediate consideration and policy reforms to make it happen. This is evident of the fact that the restricted transportation across states and district borders severely affected the input supply chain in the fisheries sector also.

Table 2.

Reforms suggested by the stakeholders to support the fisheries sector in the post-COVID-19 era are prioritized using the weighted sum model

graphic file with name 10499_2022_1040_Tab2_HTML.jpg

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The lower priority given by experts shows non-agreement with the suggestive higher frequency reforms for ease of getting simplified credit and subsidy support for the fishery-related business units and a mechanism of minimum support prices (MSP) and price regulation to get the fair price for fish products. This may be due to the fact that the banks are non-willing to offer credit to high-risk fisheries businesses where the loss of complete produce on the incidence of severe disease or abiotic stresses is more likely to happen. Also formulating instruments like MSP for perishables like fish seems over-ambitious and less effective means by the experts in the post-COVID-19 era. Also, the higher importance given by experts to the export promotion in contrast to its lower frequency is suggestive of the sampling bias error likely to creep in the snowball sampling technique.

Impacts anticipated on fisheries sector after COVID-19 lockdown

A representation of prognostic judgements provided by stakeholders regarding anticipated reparations on the fishery sector after the COVID-19 lockdown period is shown in Fig. 7. Even after the end of the COVID-19 lockdown period, a significant majority (around 50% for all response categories) has pointed out a massive uncertainty for the fisheries sector. The uncertainty judged by fisheries sector stakeholders is based on their perception, awareness, and experiences. Considering the current situation, lockdowns are still happening and restrictions are being imposed by local administration based on the severity of infection and COVID-19 cases. Data of this survey was recorded from August to November 2020 and the judgments of stakeholders are still relevant because in March 2021, the number of COVID-19 cases spiked again in India. In various districts, lockdown is still imposed, containment zones are changing, and night curfews are announced which highlights that massive uncertainty is still looming over the farming and fishery sector.

Fig. 7.

Fig. 7

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Impacts anticipated by stakeholders on the fishery sector after the COVID-19 lockdown

Around 30% of stakeholders visualized negative impacts on the fishery sector in the post-pandemic era. Stakeholders feel that there would be a rise in incidents or circumstances that would be unfavourable for the fisheries sector. For example, fish is a perishable commodity, and failure to process it or transport it results in losses. Figures 3 and 4 have already provided evidence that farmers have experienced financial losses and felt COVID-19 lockdown as one of the most severe stresses for the fisheries sector.

In the current COVID-19 lockdown situation, many business activities could not sustain profitability and the fisheries sector was not an exception. The fish farmers would need some time to normalize the production process and to attain the profitability of a business. It might take some time due to which around 30% of farmers are seeing unfavourable consequences for the fisheries sector. Furthermore, current governmental policies are devised in the pre-pandemic era and might lose their relevance as well as effectiveness in the post-pandemic era. Hence, handholding support to fish farmers and other stakeholders is highly needed to transform uncertainty and unfavourable circumstances into a favourable business setting for the fisheries sector.

However, on the brighter side, almost 15% of stakeholders have envisioned positive and favourable circumstances for the fisheries sector. This finding paves the road for systematic policy interventions to transform the fisheries sector. Most certainly, these stakeholders got timely governmental support during this COVID-19 lockdown to cope and profitably run businesses. These cases of success and optimism need to be documented for further dissemination among fellow fish farmers. Authors feel that the farmer-to-farmer extension model, participatory technology development, and group approaches for fish farming would be highly appropriate to provide support to fishery stakeholders. These approaches are the need of the hour to provide socioeconomic and institutional support to vulnerable fish farmers.

The information on how different stakeholders anticipate impacts on the fisheries sector is presented stakeholder-wise and across dimensions of the fisheries sector in Table 3. In general, Table 3 highlights the uncertainty sensed by various stakeholders in the fisheries sector after the COVID-19 lockdown. The researchers and policymakers who participated in this study could not unanimously project a scenario of whether the post-COVID-19 lockdown situation will be favourable or unfavourable for fisheries sector businesses. The majority of researchers and policymakers (28%) could not firmly answer this question due to uncertain circumstances. Around 35% of researchers and policymakers are inclined towards unfavourable circumstances against only 23% sensing favourable impacts for the fisheries sector. Therefore, mixed and uncertain responses are indicated by researchers and policymakers.

Table 3.

After COVID-19 lockdown what positive/negative impacts do stakeholders anticipate on marine fishing, fish trade and employment, fish seed production, fish production, fish feed industry, export–import, ornamental fish sales, assistance in natural breeding of fish, and cooperation in reducing water pollution

Response Category of stakeholders
Researcher and policymaker in government Farmers Entrepreneur Fishery students Others Involved in more than one activity
Mean Mean Mean Mean Mean Mean
Mostly unfavourable 12.22 (15.87) 30.22 (13.43) 6.11 (18.52) 11.44 (11.11) 3.78 (25.19) 12.22 (19.10)
Unfavourable 14.78 (19.19) 32.67 (14.52) 4.78 (14.48) 13.11 (12.73) 1.78 (11.85) 10.78 (16.84)
No effect 5.56 (7.22) 17.78 (7.90) 2.44 (7.41) 9.89 (9.60) 2.89 (19.26) 3.56 (5.56)
Favourable 16.44 (21.36) 20.00 (8.89) 3.11 (9.43) 7.67 (7.44) 0.33 (2.22) 5.67 (8.85)
Mostly favourable 6.78 (8.80) 7.00 (3.11) 1.89 (5.72) 5.78 (5.61) 0.11 (0.74) 5.11 (7.99)
Unanswered 21.22 (27.56) 117.33 (52.15) 14.67 (44.44) 55.11 (53.51) 6.11 (40.74) 26.67 (41.67)
Total 77.00 (100.00) 225.00 (100.00) 33.00 (100.00) 103.00 (100.00) 15.00 (100.00) 64.00 (100.00)
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(Values in parentheses indicate percentage to total)

Similarly, high levels of uncertainty are conveyed by a majority of the fish farmers as 52% preferred not to respond to this question. Almost 28% reported that the situation after the COVID-19 lockdown will be unfavourable for the fisheries sector. A small portion of fish farmers (12%) sensed favourable impacts for the fisheries sector. This pattern conveys the uncertain post-COVID-19 lockdown circumstances for the fisheries sector. Farmers are a low-income earner group in the Indian economy. They are in general scattered and exhibit low education status. However, they do recognize and remember the economic losses triggered due to the COVID-19 lockdown. Farmers are very sensitive to the stressors and situations which hamper their livelihood. The COVID-19 situation remained unpredictable as the cases of infection have been intermittently spiking as inferred from the Covid-19 dashboard of John Hopkins University (Dong et al. 2019). Covid-19 is emerging again in some parts of India. Under this scenario, the uncertainty dominates and the same kinds of responses are projected by fish farmers.

In addition, a similar kind of uncertainty is expected by the entrepreneurs of the fisheries sector. The situation of COVID-19 lockdown was highly unfavourable for the business sector in general. Many people stopped consumption of meat and non-vegetarian products due to the scare of COVID-19 transmission by animals. These concerns impacted fishery-related businesses too and entrepreneurs also suffered financial losses. A majority of the entrepreneurs could not judge the future of fishery-related businesses and vote for uncertainty. Besides, almost 33% anticipated unfavourable impacts. On contrary, 15% are expecting a favourable turnover for the fisheries sector.

Furthermore, the students of fisheries sciences are also key stakeholders. In our study, 103 fisheries science students recorded their observations pertaining to the impacts of COVID-19 lockdown on the fisheries sector of India. Though students are not directly involved in fish-related business activities, their opinion matters to shape the future developments. As per Table 3, almost 53% of students preferred not to respond to this question. Besides, 24% felt that the future would be unfavourable for the fishery sector. And around 13% are inclined towards favourable circumstances for the fisheries sector. This situation is emerging among students because of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the job market. All public and private sector job opportunities declined due to this global crisis. Since April 2020 most schools and colleges are shut to contain the spread of the COVID-19. This was an unprecedented situation witnessed by the present generation of students. A massive amount of uncertainty is prevailing among the students also.

In this study, 64 respondents participated who were engaged in multiple business activities among which one was fishery-related. Generally, it is believed that diversification of business activities is good for minimizing losses. For this stakeholder category also around 40% rated for uncertainty and they could not firmly answer this question. This finding provides triangulation to validate our earlier observations that almost all stakeholders experienced uncertainty in the fisheries sector.

However, there might be some positive impacts on the fisheries sector but stakeholders are not so confident about it. During the last few decades of anthropogenic activity, cyclic vulnerability (Bhendarkar et al. 2020), and climate change impacts (Alfthan et al. 2018), the marine environments have perished. Due to overfishing and subsequent decline in biodiversity (Planque et al. 2010) fisheries stock is diminished. Continuous fishing reduces the abundance, spawning potential, growth, and maturation of the target resources, as well as their associated and dependent species (Garcia et al. 2003). The fishing ban improves substantially the health status of the fish assemblage.

However, the fishing closure in any given water body creates localized areas of higher biomass and size distributions of larger fish relative to the fishing ground (Lester et al. 2009; Edgar et al. 2014; Baskett and Barnett 2015). Current closure will help in the conservation and stock enhancement of aquatic species found in India. The lockdown and restricted fishing activities are revamping fish populations and its ecosystem. Models of fish replenishment almost invariably assume that fish reproduction scales isometrically with biomass; that is if fish mass increases by 10% there will be a proportionate 10% increase in its reproductive output (Kjesbu et al. 1998; Andersen et al. 2016).

A meta-analysis showed that the absence of fishing on average allowed the growth of fish up to 28% longer than in the exploited fishing ground (Lester et al. 2009). Restriction due to closure of fishing helps in replenishment of the exploited habitat and is linked to all trophic levels directly leading to an increase in productivity and biodiversity of aquatic ecosystems.

Similarly, it can be assumed that the national level lockdown will help the recruitment of numerous fishes, shellfishes; including other International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red-listed oceanic species as reproducing period get a bit of leeway of unintended closure. India contributes 90% of the world's mackerel production which is a major fishery resource itself in the Indian marine fisheries sector. The spawning of Indian mackerel, Sardine, Threadfin bream, Cephalopods, Tunas, Seerfish, Sciaenids, and other commercial fishes occurs during February to June season (Sekharan 1955; Devaraj 1977; Silas 1985; Mohanraj et al. 2003; Bhendarkar et al. 2013; 2018) and have a significant role in the reproduction and enhancement of the fisheries stock. Protecting key spawning or nursery areas of vulnerable species can also be highly effective for stock enhancement (White et al. 2017). Since fishing and other human activity are restricted, this allows depleted populations to recover while protecting key species and vulnerable habitats.

Technological solutions for preparedness for similar scenarios in the near future

Disease outbreaks are predicted to become more manageable throughout time, since variables influencing them, such as inputs (e.g., vaccinations) and other management factors, may be improved via innovation and technology development (Bergesen and Tveteras 2019; Pincinato 2021). Thus, it is essential to build more resilience in the sector to address the challenges and identify the opportunities. The opportunities that arise to adopt technological innovations and improve environmental sustainability should not be missed (ILO 2020). The COVID-19 pandemic has re-emphasized to rethink the need for local-based sustainable food systems that meet multiple needs beyond productivity (Jumba et al. 2020) and the development of adaptation strategies considering the socio-economic context (Tru and France 2010) for preparedness in any anticipated or unanticipated similar situations. The incidence of COVID-19 has exposed the vulnerability of the informal labour sector and reverse migration is a clear indicator of this. The closure of non-essential economic activities and restrictions on movement has destabilized the labour market at least in the short run. However, even if the COVID-19 scenario is one of its kind, there are several lessons to learn for preparedness in any anticipated or unanticipated similar situations. The following listed technological solution pathway could be considered for preparedness in similar events through appropriate policy reforms and prioritization of product oriented research projects.

  • i.
    For fish seed production and systematic supply:
    1. Build a geo-spatial database of fish and nursery production sites by conducting adhoc ground and remote sensing based survey will help in data driven planning and decision making for sustainable businesses.
    2. Identify suitable geo-spatial locations to establish and train localized farmer clusters for seed production and supply to needy fish farmers
    3. Develop a mobile app-based ecosystem connecting seed suppliers and fish growers. This eco-system will help balanced demand and supply sides and thus also ensure profitability and sustainability. The eco-system should preferably have an in-built functionality and mechanisms to facilitate fish counting, arrange transportation between supply and demand sides, and implement feedback rating system for healthy business transactions.
  • ii.

    For fish feed production and its on-site supply: Develop mobile app-based ecosystem connecting feed suppliers and fish growers with emphasis on fair product pricing; improved on-demand logistics and on-site delivery and data-driven recommendations on modified feeding tables that enable faster fish growth and reduced stocking time.

  • iii.
    For sustainable precision cage culture production:
    1. Develop a low-cost yet robust fish biomass estimation methods for cage culture to enable informed decision-making on feeding regimes during reduced market demand and subsequent harvesting scheduling.
    2. The current developments in the hardware and software for deep learning computer vision systems and the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem allow affordable automation of the on-site monitoring and growth-response based feeding operation at cage culture production sites. Such connected surveillance and automatic feeding system will reduce dependency on the labour workforce and further optimize input–output resources for sustainable profitability.
    3. Development and provision of on-site fish cleaning, packaging, and cold storage facilities for valuable cultured fish species for easy transportation and sale with tight integration with an app-driven B2C business model.
  • iv.

    For fish retail market: Development of a mobile-based applications for connecting fish farmers/suppliers directly to consumers with emphasis on product traceability, hygiene, fair pricing and reduced delivery delays.

Conclusions

The fishery sector is extremely diverse, both freshwater and marine, but it nevertheless relies heavily on other ends like labour, markets, consumer demand, and inputs supply which have been and will continue to be impacted during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. This study highlights that almost all types of stakeholders associated with fishery-related businesses were aware of COVID-19 lockdown impacts on their businesses. Importantly, all stakeholders were unanimous over the uncertainty looming over the future of the fisheries sector due to the COVID-19 lockdown as a major stressor that caused economic losses to the fisherman community. Due to this unprecedented lockdown, labour availability was hampered, transport facilities were fully halted, and inputs like fish seeds, fish feeds, and technical advisory were also drastically disturbed. This pandemic has highlighted the approaches to enhance the sectoral resilience to ensure that the resilience of fisheries and aquaculture are strengthened to endure future crises for promoting sustainability, livelihood, and food security. This study provides additional information on stakeholders’ predictive views on the future of the fisheries sector in the post-COVID-19 era. In a recent study, Jamwal and Phulia (2020) also advocated the need for a collaborative and multi-sectoral approach to trigger the desirable change through policy-driven social engineering. In this case, the majority of stakeholders also have expressed their uncertainty about the fisheries sector coupled with unfavourableness. Furthermore, the majority of stakeholders feel that they are not aware of government schemes for the fisheries sector. Therefore, it is crucial to energize the outreach of the advisory services. There is also a need to align current fishery sector policies and schemes to benefit stakeholders in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era. A majority of the stakeholders suggested policy reforms to get appropriate training on resource utilization and fish processing aspects besides facilitation of credit with optimum subsidies. The transparency of scheme implementation would help in targeting needy farmers/stakeholders. Some stakeholders demanded price regulation for fish products in terms of minimum support prices to facilitate better marketing. To empower fish farmers, fish hatcheries need to be set up at the local level. The promotion of fish farming shall also be coupled with farm pond construction. This would enable many farmers to practice integrated farming and diversify their profession. This diversification would reduce the losses of farm households and farmers’ net income can also be increased.

Moreover, the authors feel that the COVID-19 situation acted as a catalyst to think and act in a sustainable development model. Considering the post-pandemic future of the fisheries sector, we suggest maximum utilization of IoT and ICT solutions to empower the farmers. The digitization of advisory services, digital networking of various fish stakeholders, app-based fish transport system, and digitized fish surveillance system to monitor the feeding, as well as the growth of fish, are highly needed. Probably, the trans-disciplinary action research projects by a team of fishery experts, social science experts, and app developers need to join hands to empower farmers in the post-pandemic era. The public sector is needed to brainstorm the existing think tank for modifying policies to help and empower fishery sector stakeholders. However, the situation is dynamic and further follow-up assessments at the state and national levels may be required to fully understand the impact that this pandemic has on fisheries and the aquaculture sector.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Director, ICAR-National Institute of Abiotic Stress Management, Baramati for the kind support.

Author contribution

Bhendarkar Mukesh Parasram, Gaikwad Bhaskar Bharat: conceptualization, methodology, administration, writing—original draft preparation, data analysis, writing, reviewing, and editing.

Bhalerao Amol Kamalakar: data analysis, writing, reviewing, and editing.

Kamble Ankush Lala: data analysis, writing, reviewing, and editing.

Viswanatha Reddy K: data analysis, reviewing, and editing.

Sreekanth Giri Bhavan: data analysis, writing, reviewing and editing.

Sendhil R: reviewing and editing.

Ramasundaram P: reviewing and editing.

Kalbande Sonal Rajendra: data collection.

Funding

This work was supported by the Institute research fund of ICAR-National Institute of Abiotic Stress Management, India.

Data availability

All the data involved in the present study are provided in the manuscript. Raw datasets will be provided by the corresponding author upon request by email.

Declarations

Ethics approval

Not applicable.

Consent to participate

Not applicable.

Consent for publication

All authors have provided consent for publication.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Footnotes

Bhendarkar Mukesh Parasram and Gaikwad Bhaskar Bharat are co-first authors.

Publisher's note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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Associated Data

This section collects any data citations, data availability statements, or supplementary materials included in this article.

Data Availability Statement

All the data involved in the present study are provided in the manuscript. Raw datasets will be provided by the corresponding author upon request by email.

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