Organisational Understanding

South Indian Federation of

Fishermen Societies
Karamana, Thiruvananthapuram – 695 002

BALAKRISHNAN M
JAMES ABRAHAM
JYOTI MISHRA
RAJESH R
RAJPREET KAUR
SUVOJIT CHATTOPADHYAY
 Synopsis
 Objectives
 Methodology
 Brief History
 The Universal Business Model
 Performance
 Future plans
 Issues
 Objectives of the Study
 To gain insights into SIFFS as an organization,
understanding its structure, role and functioning in
its chosen area of operation

 To study SIFFS as a part of the fish workers’

movement in South India, especially in the State
of Kerala.
 Methodology
 Semi-structured interviews with department heads
and informal interactions with field officers.

 Secondary data were collected and analysed from

records at SIFFS and Centre for Development
Studies, Trivandrum

 Universal Business Model adopted in

understanding the organisation
 Brief History
 Intervention in the form of co-op societies - began at
Marianad in 1968 - against exploitative fish marketing
system
 SIFFS evolved as an apex body of the primary societies in
Trivandrum in 1980
 District federations were formed in 1983.
 Input supply activities started in mid 80s
 Micro- credit and society expansion in mid 90s
 Advocacy and campaigning for fisher folk were
strengthened in late 90s
 Of late, SIFFS has ventured into alternative employment
programmes.
 Identity
 NGO working in the Marine Fisheries Sector
 Regd. under Charitable Societies Act in 1980
 Mandate : Focusing on Techno-economic
development of artisanal fisher folk
 Area of operation : Southern coast
 Head office at Trivandrum and regional offices in
Malabar, Mangalore and Kakinada ( AP)
 Federated 3-tier structure
 Reputation : “A company with a concern for
fishermen” ; Excellence as Technology provider ;
Active in advocacy and campaign on fisheries issues
 Purpose
 Facilitating fish marketing : freeing fishermen from the
clutches of middlemen and money lenders – the purpose to
start with.

 Expansion of activities : need based

 Vision : “ A sustainable fishery and a developed fishing

community”
 Mission : “ To protect and enhance livelihoods in marine
fishing”
 Objectives / Goals
 Producer control over fish marketing and inputs basically
to liberate fishermen from the clutches of middlemen,
merchants and money lenders)
 Livelihood protection and enhancement using appropriate
technology.
 Policy research and advocacy to support to interests of
artisanal fishermen.
 Alternative employment and strengthening of women’s
livelihoods to diversify the economic base of the
community and ensure its all round development.
 Governance
 General Body : 6 elected representatives from
each Federation
2 authorised representatives of
each associate member
federation
 Board of Directors : 2 representatives of each full
member federation
Chief Executives of all full
member federations
Organisational Structure
CEO
CEO

Dy. CEO

Dept. Head/Executive

Manager

Programme Officer

Field Staff
 Key Responsibilities

 CEO
 Strategic decision making; External interface;
Convening GBM
 Deputy CEO
 Internal administration; Managing interface with
member federations
 Managerial staff: Executives/Managers
 Day to day operations; Planning annual departmental
activities; Directing the field staff
 Field Staff
 Mobilisation; Field supervision activities
 Functioning

 High degree of accessibility

 Annual Planning meeting; Half yearly review
meeting & Monthly review meetings held
 Formal information sharing between departments
in regular meetings
 Active informal channels of communication
 Highly flexible work culture
 Culture
 Management style
 Democratically managed
 High horizontal differentiation, Low vertical differentiation
 Centralised
 Low formalisation
 Leadership
 Professional leader
 Participative decision making style
 Lack of a professional second-line-command
 Performance appraisal system is limited
 Promotion given on the basis of seniority and
performance
 Participants
 Owners – Above 6000 fisher folk in the southern
coast represented by B.O.D
 Managers and workers are mostly experienced
people from the community
 Channel – either directly or through affiliated
societies
 Customers – member and non-member fish workers
ranging above 50000
 Suppliers – Funding agencies, Banks and other
business partners
 Neighbours – Matsyafed, ARIF, INAFI
 Enablers

 Real estate – Land & building worth Rs. 60 lakhs, 12

boatyards, 21 OBM service centres
 Technology – Fishing craft development, Engine
development, artificial reef development, satellite
based safety service technology
 Intellectual Property – Patents in boat designs and
boat engines, sole dealership of Suzuki OBMs in
Kerala
 Core competencies – R & D
 Activities

Commercial Developmental

Boatyards R& D

OBM Programme Society Expansion

Ice Plants Alternate Employment

Training Programmes
Micro Finance

HRD
Marketing

Information Division

Advocacy
 Deliverables

 Products – Boats, Out Board Motors

 Services– Microfinance, Marketing, Repair of

Boats and OBMs, Advocacy, Information
services, Alternative employment
generation , Other occupational-related
training.
 Influences
 Constraints
 Legal status of organisation
 Competition from the state
 Threats
 Losing of monopoly in OBM supply side
 Increasing local players in OBM workshops
 Opportunities
 Self – Reliant Cooperative Societies Act
 Growth in fishing industry
 Competitors
 Matsyafed
 Local players
 Performance
 Pioneer in fishing craft and gear technology
 Key partner in many fisheries research
programmes; advocacy related issues
 Dispelled notions that fisher folk are non-bankable
 Speedy loan disbursement
 High member centrality
 Performance (Contd..)
 Growth in last 10 years
 Societies more than doubled in number: Ventured
into all south Indian states
 Fishermen membership increased by 75 %
 Fish sales increased 4 fold to reach a record level
of 37 crores (2003-04)
 Fisherwomen also organised into a separate
federation lately
 Port folio of activities expanded widely viz.
microfinance, marketing, SHG initiatives etc.
Source: SIFFS documents
 Inflow and Outflow of funds
Major sources of Inflow Major uses of funds
 HIVOS (Netherlands) - 70%  Cooperative services – 20%
 Other funding agencies -2%  Technological services – 19%
 Commercial activities - 10%  Administration – 19%
 Member federations  Commercial activities – 12%
contribution - 8%  Information services – 10%
 Miscellaneous income -10%  Marketing – 7.5%
 Other – 12.5%

Source: SIFFS Annual Reports

 Future plans
 Structural changes to comply with EU regulations
 Plans to branch off into an NGO and a separate
business entity
 Main focus on Alternative Employment in the
next five years
 Foray into wholesale fresh fish marketing
 Expanding micro credit department to form a
separate MFI
 Issues
 Sustainability of the organisation without
professional leadership ?
 Continued focus only on boat owners
 Implementing and handling structural
changes
 Entry into marketing
 Capacity building of fisher folk
Thank You