Fish for Food or Fish for Feed: New Populism and Blue Economy Perspective

Blue economy-induced growth models are becoming populist in Indian context. In this populism the highlights are capital investment in coastal and marine space, export-led growth, and expansion of trade. This study assesses the magnitude and drivers of India’s rapidly growing FMFO industry and explores its implications for India’s rampant domestic nutritional security concerns. This entry critically explores the implications of this rapidly expanding sector at three levels. First, the FMFO industry is driving a form of indiscriminate “biomass fishing,” targeting species that until recently were considered bycatch, constituting a new manifestation of cheap nature commodification. Second, the FMFO industry undermines the viability of small-scale fishers and local fish traders, who are out competed both at sea (by trawlers) and on land (by the FMFO agents), providing a clear manifestation of accumulation by dispossession. Third, the industry converts cheap small fish that would otherwise be affordable to local markets and poorer households into high value shrimp destined for export markets and hence compromising on domestic nutrition security. The blue economy agenda backed by new populism is hence creating three important dispossessions, namely ecological, livelihood, and nutrition security.