NEW DELHI: India faces annual post-harvest losses of Rs 61,000 crore in production of marine and inland fisheries and it results in huge loss of income for the fishermen community holding back the sector from potentially registering a higher average annual growth rate than the 7% recorded in recent years.Attributing this huge loss to faulty handling practices, inordinate delay in packing & transportation and lack of proper cold storage facilities, a parliamentary panel has asked the government to modernise existing harbours, establish more cold storage facilities and ensure availability of more refrigerated trucks/vans for transportation of fishes.Headed by the BJP’s Lok Sabha member P C Gaddigoudar, the parliamentary standing committee on agriculture in its report tabled in Parliament on Friday, noted that the inland fisheries reported higher annual post-harvest losses of Rs 46,000 crore as compared to marine fisheries (Rs 15,000 crore).The marine fisheries resources are spread along the country’s vast coastline and over 20 lakh square km exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and nearly 6 lakh sq km continental shelf area. The inland fisheries resources, on the other hand, are in the form of rivers and canals, floodplain lakes, ponds & tanks, reservoirs, brackish water and saline/alkaline affected areas.The total fish production in the country stood at around 13.42 million metric tonnes during 2018-19. Of this, marine fisheries contributed 3.71 million metric tonnes. During 2018- 19, export of marine products stood at nearly 1.4 million metric tonnes and were valued at Rs 46,589 crore.Though the annual growth in this sector has been quite impressive, in the backdrop of such annual losses, the panel recommended the government allocate sufficient funds to the department of fisheries so that its schemes can be fully implemented to achieve the targeted export earnings of Rs 1 lakh crore by 2024-25.In the context of implementation of the centrally sponsored scheme (CSS) ‘Blue Revolution’ for a period of five years from 2015-16 to 2019-20 at total central outlay of Rs 3,000 crore, the committee observed that some of the states/UTs such as Andaman & Nicobar, Bihar, Daman & Diu and Goa were lagging behind in allocation of funds during 2019-2020 as they did not send any proposal to the Centre.The ‘CSS - Blue Revolution’ is a demand driven scheme and the funds are released on merit of proposals received from the states/UTs and their requirements.