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| Network for Fish Quality Management & Sustainable Fishing |
| (A society under MPEDA, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Govt. of India) |
Network for Fish Quality Management and Sustainable Fishing (NETFISH) is a registered society formed under the aegis of Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) with a view to imparting knowledge to fishermen/ fisherwomen/ processing workers, technicians, etc. in fish quality management, conservation of fish resources as well as sustainable fishing.
With the growing importance of total quality management in seafood production, post harvest handling has assumed paramount importance. Although India has world class seafood processing plants which take care of the final stages of post harvest handling, concerted efforts are lacking in the initial stages of the quality chain. None of the Governmental or the research institution under the Government of India has been able to make a dent on this issue. Imparting training to fishermen at the grassroots level is a challenging task for which the involvement of agencies working close to the fishermen is highly imperative. There is a feeling among fishermen that they are completely left out of extension programmes because of the lack of reach. They do not get vital information on the quality requirements in international seafood trade as well as newly emerging areas like eco-labelling. The conventional system of extension through the official machinery needs to be replaced by an agency which can reach out to the grassroots levels and mobilize organization whose primary objectives to work for the welfare of fishermen. Besides, training of fishermen in post harvest handling and other techniques calls for devoted efforts by a dedicated agency. Such agency will be far more effective in imparting training to fishermen and fish workers and thus bring about a "bottom up" approach to post harvest handling.
Based on this concept, NETFISH was formulated as a society under MPEDA and this society would concentrate deeply on capacity building in quality management and conservation of aquatic resources at the grassroots level by networking with fishermen societies, federations and other non-governmental organizations.