DFM Sri Lanka literature review - Conclusion and scoping priorities
Despite its importance, many aspects of the social economy of dried fish in Sri Lanka are almost invisible to researchers and policy-makers. Existing literature emphasizes fishers and fishing, paying far less attention to land-based activities such as processing and trading, which may account for large number of fisheries-related livelihoods, including most of the women involved. Similarly, fresh products are almost always assumed to be the primary, or the only form in which fish is consumed. Post-harvest dried fish value chains are often overlooked, and undocumented in official statistics. Despite data available on consumption of dried fish in rural, urban and estate sector households and among different income quintiles in national household income and expenditure surveys in Sri Lanka for decades, these data have not been systematically analyzed for the most part, and this review here makes the first attempt. There is, therefore, an urgent need to apply a transdisciplinary perspective to better understand the dried fish economy and raise its profile if much-needed policy interventions to address these concerns are to be developed. The potential to link with policy interventions has increased in Sri Lanka with the new National Fisheries and Aquaculture Policy of 2018, which emphasizes both social and environmental concerns to a greater extent than before. Improving employment opportunities, gender mainstreaming for equality in benefits from the fisheries sector, quality, safety and nutrition of fisheries products, and sustainable management of resources are issues included in the new policy.
The existing Sri Lankan literature on the dried fish sector reveals several research gaps. Most research has been conducted on the technical aspects of dried fish with lab-based experiments such as nutritional analysis, microbial analysis, quality analysis, and analysis of different processing methods (Figure 9.1). A few studies are available on dried fish supply chains and markets from an economic perspective. However, the value chain approach has not been systematically applied to analyze the social economy of dried fish in Sri Lanka. Very little research has also been carried out from social and political perspectives, including gender relations, social networks, wellbeing, and governance. Identifying these gaps is crucial to encourage future research on dried fish as it provides many direct and indirect benefits at the individual, community, and national levels.
Based on the literature review in the proceeding sections, the following research gaps were identified for scoping (i) the diversity and complexity of post-harvest dried fish value chains, including actors, agents, and their roles; (ii) value creation, prices, price integration, and market integration; (iii) wellbeing processes and outcomes of dried fish processing and trading; (iv) quality parameters, especially on management practices, post-harvest handling, and contaminations; and (v) consumption patterns, demand factors, and variation in consumer preferences. Gender would be an important cross-cutting issue with fieldwork to include collection of data on gender roles, relations, inequality in participation and returns, constraints and opportunities along dried fish value chains. Finally, this literature review reveals a knowledge gap in assessing the role of formal institutions, governance, and policies in the dried fish industry, which also needs to be addressed at the scoping stage.
