A pioneering eco-sustainable programme Parivarthanam, to help the fishing community was launched here on Friday, aiming to improve the livelihood skills of youngsters along the coastline and also enable socio-economic uplift of the fishermen community.
Conceived to manage the states aquatic and agricultural products through intelligent use of human resources, the scheme will promote processing and marketing of clean fish and its fresh products, Fisheries minister J Mercykutty, said.
At the ceremony, the minister also formally handed over to Finance Minister Dr T M Thomas Isaac a set of retort pouches carrying value-added products.
Dr Thomas Isaac also released a bcook on the project.
Parivarthanam, which means change, will be spearheaded by Kerala State Coastal Area Development Corporation (KSCADC).
Conceived to also provide jobs to college dropouts and migrant workforce returning home due to Covid-19, the scheme envisages a rapid improvement in the standard of living of the states fisher communities by encouraging entrepreneurship.
Parivarthanam will also guarantee a fixed price to fish-catchers as a fair compensation.
The mission ensures their participation in the distribution of unadulterated fish online and otherwise, the minister said.
Local administration bodies and peoples representatives, too, will be part of the scheme, which will entertain private participation too.
Besides the state-run KSCADC, the Union governments Central Institute of Fisheries Technology (CIFT) will monitor procurement and processing of fish besides ensuring its quality.
The state administration will oversee Parivarthanam, conceived to be self-sufficient in six months.
KSCADC, based in Thiruvananthapuram, will carry out the scheme through entrepreneur groups.
The 2008-founded corporation will also train job-seeking youngsters as per the skill development guidelines and encourage them to complete studies.
The scheme will extend help for dropouts doing manual labour to repay educational loans and aid their fisher families.It will handhold them to start CIFT-recognised seafood units.
The project envisages a range of value-added products in the processing stage.These include dry fish, pickles, marinated fish and cutlets.
Fishworkers will also be trained to handle facilities for frozen fish.Tie-ups with local aqua farms will guarantee supply of fish without break.
The scheme will also sell live fish. Already a CIFT-guided processing unit has opened in Kollam, where a training programme for women just got over.
Present at todays function were KSCADC Managing Director Sheik Pareeth, CIFT Principal Scientist Dr K Ashok Kumar and Society for Advanced Technologies and Management Vice-Chairman Roy V Nagendran.