Coastal fisher families’ main occupation is fishing and selling of fish in the near by fish market. Their monthly income, ranges from Rs.4,000to8,000,which is not sufficient to meet out their livelihood requirements. In coastal areas fish wastes are mostly dumped in nearby seashore and backwaters and the environment gets polluted. The villagers’ health is also affected by fish waste pile-up around their locality. To address this concern, ICAR-Central Institute of Brackish water Aquaculture (CIBA), Chennai, has developed a processing technology for recycling of fish wastes into value added products namely, CIBA-Plankton ^Plus, a product for boosting plankton production in aquaculture rearing systems, and CIBA-Horti ^Plus, manure for horticulture, and demonstrated their potential among a group of fisher families.

Nambikkai Fisher Group, Pattinappakkam, Chennai, TamilNadu has established a startup “Fish waste processing unit” in 2019 with the technical support of ICAR-CIBA for the production of  CIBA-Plankton^Plus and CIBA-Horti^Plus converting fish wastes of local fish markets. With a handholding of CIBA they produced and marketed their products among the shrimp/fish farmers of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and West Bengal. The group has earned 15 lakhs per year from this technology during 2019 to 2021. The technology generated employment opportunities formore than 40 coastal families in and around Chennai and their socio-economic status has been uplifted. More than 355 fisher folk and farmers were trained/got awareness about recycling offish-wastes to value-added products through this technology.

Looking at the potential of these products in aquacultureandhorticulture,oneofthegroupmembersofNambikkaiFishFarmersGroup,Mrs.K.Velankanni,hasstartedamicro-levelenterprise“V.S.FishWasteHydrolysate”,Chennai, formanufacturingof CIBA-Plankton^Plusand CIBA-Horti^Plus and become a micro-level entrepreneur.Dr. K.P.Jithendren, Director, ICAR-CIBA, Chennai,inaugurated the enterprise and expressed his hopefulness that this model will be a successful and sustainable for converting the fish waste to value added products, which can provide supplementary income to the fisher folk and will also help for making the coastal areas and fish markets of the country clean.

Dr. P. Mahalakshmi, Principal Scientist, briefed about the significance of this unit and highlighted the success of Nambikkai Fish Farmers Group and their dedication for its upliftment through entrepreneurship. Shri.T. Kennit Raj, representative of Nambikkai Fish Farmers Group praised the efforts of ICAR-CIBA, in promoting of waste to wealth concept as an alternative livelihood activity for the fishers in their village. Mrs.K.Velankanni expressed her happiness about the upliftment of their socio-economic status and doubling of their income through the waste to wealth technology.

(Release ID: 1762988) Visitor Counter : 1040