“We are adding our inherit knowledge to the technology and are able to return with a decent catch from every voyage into the sea,” says 35-year-old Madada Lova Raju, fondly looking at his mobile phone gadget.
Owner of a mechanised boat and head of a seven-member family, Raju, a non-literate, has made it a point to the listen to the bulletins being transmitted thrice a day from the mobile phone. “We have come to know about Potential Fishing Zone (PFZ) in the Bay of Bengal,” says the resident of Uppada Kothapalli fishermen hamlet on the city’s outskirts.
Though the boats are not equipped with Global Positioning System, the fishermen are able to reach the PFZs by making better use of their inherit knowledge of the sea. Like Mr. Raju, many fishermen from the shore used to venture into the sea with packs of food, tins of water and diesel and often returned empty handed after a week-long voyage in the troubled waters till a few years ago. Thanks to the optimum utilisation of technology, the fishermen are now able to make a smooth sail by using the satellite data. As the voice messages from their mobile phones give them apt directions on the PFZ, the fishermen are able to spend their energies and fuel in a meaningful way.
For boat owners such as Dasari Arjuna Rao, the advance bulletins on weather are useful to chalk out a calendar of voyage and alert his staff to adhere to the deadlines. “The information is 100 % accurate with regard to weather, and the accuracy is about 80 per cent with regard to the PFZ,” says the 51-year-old from Subbampeta hamlet.
Pilot project
Reliance Foundation is transmitting the satellite data into voice messages in colloquial language and disseminating the same to the fisherfolk every day.
The project was launched on a pilot basis way back in 2013 and is currently on the job of expanding it to a State-level project. “We are also offering call centre service to the fishermen who have registered their phone numbers with us,” says Varahalu Cheepulla, project manager at the foundation.
At present, 32,305 fishermen from Andhra Pradesh, including 9,500 from East Godavari district, are availing themselves of the services, and the project is on expansion mode. “We have come out of the initial hiccups and are able to gain the confidence of our stakeholders. Now, existing members are enrolling their fellow folks to avail themselves of the free services,” says Chittibabu Nagulapalli, senior manager at the foundation.
“We are waiting for a day when the message alerts us about the availability of different fish species. It will help us catch the variety that has demand in the market,” Mr. Raju says on an optimistic note tone.
