Workshop cum training on Survey of traditional fishing methods and documenting Practices held at CIFT, Cochin

A Workshop cum training on “Survey of traditional fishing methods and documenting practices’ was organized under the National Innovation Foundation funded project “Village knowledge register of Thoothoor fishing community & Establishing knowledge based enterprises by pooling best innovative and traditional knowledge practices” on 8^thAugust, 2013 at CIFT, Cochin. The Central Institute of Fisheries Technology and Innoaction India, a non profit organization are partnering institutions with National Innovation Foundation in which this project is carried out with help of Association of Deep Sea Going Artisanal Fishermen (ADSGAF).The project is being carried out with the aim of scientifically documenting the indigenous knowledge and traditional practices of the world renowned sea faring community of Thoothoor. The programme began with a welcome speech of Dr. Leela Edwin, Head, Fishing Technology Division and Principal Investigator of the project. A brief introduction about the project and workshop cum training was given by the PI. The PI also thanked Bay of Bengal Programme for offering support for drawing different designs of hook and line used by Thoothoor fishermen. Shri. J. Vincent Jain, Chief Executive Officer, ADSGAF, Thoothoor, Partner of the project gave remarks and assumed that through this project Thoothoor fishermen will get a national recognition. The formal vote of thanks was proposed by Dr. P. Pravin, Co-PI of the project.

The workshop was conducted to the seven trainees for getting first hand information on the documentation procedure for a better output while compiling data and to ensure the local representation of the technologies. TheWorkshop was aimed to enablethe creation of  a village knowledge register of fishing community of Thoothoor village by documenting and developing database/register of outstanding traditional knowledge and innovations of fisherman.

The session started with training class on ‘Community resource analysis through PRA’ by Shri Allwin Thomas, Community Development Supervisor, Jalanidhi, Govt. of Kerala. Dr. J. Charles Jeeva, Senior Scientist, CIFT, Cochin delivered a lecture on the topic ‘Tools and techniques for social survey and documentation’. A practical session for data collection was also organized during the training.

Dr. P. Pravin explained the questionnaire and cleared the doubts of trainees in the interactive session. After the session, a field visit to Thoppumpady harbour and Fort Cochin was also arranged.

Shri J. Vincent Jain, CEO giving remarks. On the dais         Shri Allwin Thomas imparting training on the topic
Dr. Leela Edwin and Dr. P. Pravin                                                  ‘Community resource analysis through PRA’