Impacts of COVID-19 on small-scale freshwater carp and coastal brackish water shrimp farming in India

The present study was simultaneously conducted in two distantly located areas to assess the impacts of COVID-19 on farming processes, instantaneous financial impacts and mitigation strategies adopted by the farmers in the small scale freshwater carp farming and coastal brackish water shrimp farming sectors in India. Primary data were collected through interview of the farmers with the help of pre-tested structured interview schedules. Though the initial impact in both the sectors were substantial, freshwater carp farmers mitigated the crises comparatively well because of wider option in alternative livelihood, low cost locally available inputs, mobilization of local market, direct door to door vending of live fish and mobilization of women work force from the family in the farming sector. Untapped resource in the form of women's' participation in the freshwater farming practices was noteworthy during the pandemic period which increased polynomially (y = - 1.0714x2 + 7.5286x -2.2;R2 = 0.9648). As the shrimp farming sector was dependent upon external markets and burdened with high cost inputs primarily supplied by the input dealers on credit basis, the sector has to bear the burden most. Garret's Rank analysis revealed that integration with other production sectors ranked first as mitigation perception to the freshwater carp farmers, whereas, to the coastal shrimp farmers, the highest rank was with the perception that everything will be normalized within 2- 3 months naturally. Garret's Rank analysis also revealed that in both the sectors, the farmers most important need was credit from the Govt. source in mitigating COVID-19 like crisis in future. © D. Hait.

The economic performance of the EU fishing fleet during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent public health interventions have depressed demand and disrupted supply chains for many fishing businesses. This paper provides an analysis of the COVID-19 impacts on the profitability of the EU fishing fleets. Nowcasting techniques were used to estimate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economic performance for the EU fishing fleet in 2020 and 2021. Our results show that the economic impact of COVID-19 on this sector was smaller than initially expected and overall profits remained positive. This was in part due to low fuel prices that reduced operating costs of fishing, and the early response from governments to support the sector. The results vary by fishing fleet, revealing that small-scale fleets and the fleets in the Mediterranean and Black seas have been more impacted than large-scale fleets and the fleets in the Northeast Atlantic. © G. Carpenter et al., Published by EDP Sciences 2023.

The economic impact of COVID-19 on French fisheries

The crisis linked to the Covid-19 pandemic has affected the French fishing industry through market disruptions, both on the supply and on the demand sides. This article focuses on the measurement of impacts of these disruptions on the fish auction markets, considering regional and local dimensions. Fish auction markets are part of regional systems along each coastline of metropolitan France. At the local scale, they are differentiated with respect to the specialisation of products offered for first-sale. The measurement of impacts of the health crisis on these markets relate to the adaptation behaviour of fishers at regional and local scales. It is through the complementary nature of marketing channels that fishers can find solutions to future shocks.