Government Deep-Sea Fishing Scheme Struggles Amid Financial Strain and Vessel Issues for Traditional Fishers

Traditional fishers across India face mounting debt and delays after participating in the central government's deep-sea fishing vessel scheme, highlighting a major gap between policy goals and ground realities. Launched under the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana, the scheme offers subsidized tuna longliner-and-gillnetter boats costing a minimum of 1.2 crore rupees to help fishers reach waters beyond 200 metres for high-value species like oceanic tuna and sharks.

Struggles and Delays

Shaju Antony, a traditional fisherman from Kerala, gathered about 72 lakh rupees as his share for a boat under the scheme and received it in December 2023. The boat immediately showed defects, requiring Antony and his crew to spend an additional 30 lakh rupees on repairs before he eventually gave up and sent petitions to the state government. Further up the west coast, Maharashtra fishers' union leader Kiran Koli applied in 2017-18 under the earlier Neel Kranti Mission and finally received his boat in June 2026, but is still waiting for the final two subsidy installments.

Low Uptake

The central government approved roughly 470 crore rupees to build 392 vessels between 2020 and 2025, but only 131 boats have been ordered as of September 2026. Karnataka leads with 58 sanctioned boats and Maharashtra has 49, while major states like Andhra Pradesh and Kerala have only six operational vessels, and states like Odisha, Gujarat, Goa, and Tamil Nadu have zero takers. Beneficiaries in Kerala reported faulty cooling compressors causing fish to rot, engine stalls, excessive fuel consumption, rudder failures, and water seepage in engine rooms.

Context

India's fisheries sector contributes 1.1 percent to the national GDP and supports nearly 28 million livelihoods, prompting the state to encourage deep-sea operations as coastal fish stocks face depletion from overfishing and environmental pressures. However, high upfront costs, delayed subsidy disbursements, and poor vessel designs have made traditional fishing communities deeply cautious about investing in government-backed modernization programs.