International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a specialized agency of the United Nations, is in the process of revising its Country Strategic Opportunities Paper (COSOP) for India during the current year. As part of this exercise, IFAD wishes to collaborate with the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers, (ICSF), Chennai, India to develop an understanding of issues in coastal fisheries and preliminarily identify areas for possible IFAD assistance. As part of its collaboration with IFAD, ICSF agrees to contribute a background paper to the COSOP review exercise, based on the following TOR: (i) Provide an overview of the state of coastal fisheries in India, indicating geographical spread, production systems, constraints and opportunities and medium-term outlook. (ii) Examine the major issues affecting coastal fisheries, with particular reference to the role of these issues in the livelihood of poor coastal communities and the linkage between trends in the sector and coastal poverty.
