Agricultural Economics Research Review

The marine fishing one among the riskiest professions in the world. Fishers often face risks to their life and fishing assets. Sudden changes in the weather in the form of cyclones, incidents like tsunami, collision of fishing vessels, accidental firings and other mishaps while fishing constitute major perils that affect the fishers. The weather fluctuations impart instability to the income flow of fishers, as they are unable to venture into the seas. Deepening the marine fishing insurance would help to protect the fishers and transfer the heavy risks, particularly in the context of climate change. The insurance in fisheries sector has several learning lessons from the crop insurance schemes being implemented in the country. In this context the article is undertaken with the objectives of: (a) reviewing the status of marine fisheries insurance in India; (b) investigating the adoption profile of marine fisheries insurance and the constraints thereof; and (c) examining the prospects of reforming the marine fisheries in India in the light of experience from the crop insurance schemes. The study uses both primary and secondary data. The primary data was collected by using a snowball sampling technique from 200 fishermen of Kerala, with 100 each from traditional fishers and trawl fishers. The data was supplemented by a case study of the Njarakkal-Nayarambalam Fishermen Welfare Cooperative Development Society in Ernakulam, Kerala who facilitates insurance coverage to traditional fishers. Also three focused group discussions with the fishermen were carried out. The leaning lessons for fisheries insurance from crop insurance in Kerala was derived following a literature review. The fishery insurance in India is not well developed. All the traditional vessels (100%) in the sample were insured due to the operation of Matyafed, a cooperative venture supported by government of Kerala, which provides credit to the traditional fishermen where the insurance is bundled with credit. Vessels insurance have only marginal coverage with trawl fishers. The main reasons for the low subscription are high premiums, inadequate coverage of the loss, and previous experience of delays in settlement of indemnities. Lack of suitable insurance products and difficulty in verifiability affects also affects its deepening. Further, fishers perceive insurance as an additional expenditure, and are of the opinion that the community would take care of the loss to a certain extent. A weather index-based insurance scheme vogue in crops insurance is an alternative solution. For this, measures such as harnessing the potential of technology and bringing about attitudinal changes are important. The study calls for initiation of steps for piloting weather-based insurance schemes for marine fishers.