Village Fisheries Assistants (VFAs) and Sagarmithras are now trained in using FFMA

Sagarmitras are the interface between the Government and fishers. and act as ‘first person of contact’ for any marine fisheries-related demands/services of fishers. They create awareness among the local fishers on various government schemes and programmes.

On December 9, MSSRF organised a full-fledged orientation cum training programme for  the Village Fisheries Assistants (VFAs) and Sagarmithras from various locations in the Krishna district. The purpose of this exercise was to build capacity around the Fisher Friend Mobile App (FFMA) for local fishers. Around 35 members working under the marine division participated in the training.

Dr. Velvizhi, Head, Fish For All Centre, Poompuhar, spoke about the Fish for All Centre activities, and iterated the importance of artificial reeves and the model used by MSSRF. She also explained the difference between square mesh and diamond shaped nets, and the environmental impacts of using nets. Later, she provided an overview about FFMA, its features, usefulness, etc., to the participants.

Mr. Veerabhadra Rao, Development Associate, trained the participants how to use the FFMA through live demonstrations, and explained the features of PFZ, OSF, Weather Forecast and GPS.  A video on fishermen feedback after using FFMA and how they find the features useful was also screened. One of the Master Trainers – Mr. Sridhar then shared his experiences from using FFMA. He stated that FFMA was reliable for information on OSF, disaster alert, and particularly the GPS option.