CAPACITATING FOR MARKET LED FISHERIES EXTENSION SYSTEMS: A WAY FORWARD

Capacity building is required to enable an organization to address wider social and cultural environment. Departments of fisheries are geared to increase the production of fish on sustainable basis and the present regime demands increase in farmers' income - which needs the knowledge on marketing.

The present study was conducted to assess the training needs and knowledge levels of fisheries department officials' and to enhance the capability of them in order to establish market led extension system in the study area. The study area was Nadia district, West Bengal. Data were collected from 29 officers from the various blocks in the district working for fisheries department. Training Need Index and descriptive statistics were used to analyse the personal attributes and training needs. The training need index (Fig.1) was found to be highest for food safety and quality standards followed by alternative marketing methods, supply chain aspects, infrastructure management, market information and it was least for institutional aspects in fish marketing. The training need index was found to be almost a mirror image of the knowledge score, which reveals the inverse relationship between these two scores (Fig 2.).

Majority of the officers expressed their urge to undergo training in the various areas of fish marketing. With regard to the recent scenario and enduring change in fish marketing, capacity building and training of the officers are the two key aspects that should be conducted regularly so that they stay updated with respect to knowledge, skills and can cope up with the pace of change.

Training need score

Fig.1 Area specific training need index of the fishery officer

Figure 2. Relationship between training need and level of knowledge of officer