Credit at the Landing Site

Digital Microloans vs. Cooperative Finance and Their Effects on Fisher Households

Abstract

Across India’s coasts, fishers’ livelihoods are tightly coupled to volatile weather, fuel prices, and seasonally fluctuating catch. Access to fast, flexible credit helps smooth shocks but can also entrench debt cycles. This paper investigates how the ongoing shift from traditional cooperative finance to app-based digital microloans is reshaping financial inclusion and debt sustainability for fisher households, with a primary focus on coastal Andhra Pradesh. We synthesize evidence from fisheries economics, microfinance, and digital-lending regulation; develop a conceptual framework linking credit design to seasonal income risk; and propose a mixed-methods identification strategy capable of distinguishing access gains from sustainability risks. We argue that platform credit can expand inclusion and speed, yet—absent guardrails—raises dispersion in effective borrowing costs, increases rollover dependence in lean seasons, and weakens the social enforcement advantages that cooperatives historically provided. We outline a practical policy and product blueprint: shock-responsive moratoria; loan scheduling keyed to closed seasons; transparent APR disclosure; cooperative data rails with digital disbursal; and embedded savings/insurance nudges.