Dr. Trilochan Mohapatra, Secretary (DARE) & DG (ICAR) stressed on the need of scaling-up economically successful start-up models at national level

7^th August, 2019, Chennai

Dr. Trilochan Mohapatra, Secretary (DARE) & DG (ICAR) along with the other dignitaries from the Institute visited the “Fish-Waste to Wealth” start-up unit at the ICAR-Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture, Chennai here today. Dr. Mohapatra was on his visit to the Institute.

During the Interactive Meet with the Director General, the Nambikkai Fish Farmers Group at the unit discussed the various activities and issues concerning the fish-waste processing technology and its product from the representative among the group members. Dr. Mohapatra urged the scientists for focusing more on implementing and wide-spreading and nationwide disseminating the technology developed for the better adoption among the regional, state and national user groups.

Dr. K.K. Vijayan, Director, ICAR-CIBA outlined the technology’s genesis and advantages in aquaculture.

Shri T. Kennit Raj, representative of Nambikkai Fish Farmers Group expressed their gratitude about the upliftment of their socio-economic status through the technology. The group appreciated the genuine efforts to promote the “Waste to Wealth” concept as an alternative livelihood activity for the fishers in their village.

The Institute has “Fish-Waste to Wealth” Unit at Chennai for the production of Plankton^Plus and Horti^Plusfrom the fish waste sourced from fish markets. The production capacity of the small scale Fish-Waste to Wealth unit is 2000 L/month. The Annual turnover of one Unit is Rs.16.80 lakhs with net profit of Rs. 4.56 lakhs. The Nambikkai Fish Farmers Group, Nambikkai Nagar, Chennai is producing the Plankton^Plus and Horti^Plus using Fish-waste sourced from locals and  Processed at the Start-up Unit established by CIBA.

(Source: ICAR-Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture, Chennai)