Hygienic dried fish production using polyhouse solar dryers

Abstract

WorldFish had signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Fisheries and Animal Resource Development (FARD) Department, Government of Odisha to provide technical support to implement the ‘Odisha Fisheries Policy 2015’ for six years (July 2016-March 2022) with a focus on increasing and self-sufficiency in fish production. WorldFish also implemented the USAID project from October 2017 to March 2021 and its primary goal was “to improve food and nutrition security in the Indian state of Odisha through increasing availability, accessibility and consumption of fish and fish products.” Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and WorldFish have signed a 5-year research collaboration agreement in January 2019. Under this ICAR and WorldFish have established long-term research collaboration between the two organizations in the areas of sustainable aquaculture (SA), small scale fisheries (SSF) and value chains and nutrition (VCN). WorldFish and ICAR-CIFT research collaboration focuses on (a) fish consumption patterns of rural and urban consumers and (b) development of specific fish products for the first 1,000 days of life – pregnant and lactating women and young children 6-24 months of age. Under this broad framework of collaboration and activities in Odisha, WorldFish in partnership with FARD, Mission Shakti, WCD and ICAR-CIFT installed and operationalized 10 poly-house solar tunnel dryers in 6 coastal districts of Odisha and built capacity of WSHGs to produce safe dried fish products. This report provides details of work carried out, deliverables accomplished, lessons learned including recommendations.