Tamil Nadu - Tuticorin   

Solar fish-drier, a boon to SHG fisherwomen

By P. Sudhakar

TUTICORIN, JUNE 5. Fisherwomen of a village on the Tiruchendur-Kanyakumari coastal highway, who hitherto dried up unsold catches by the drying methods, have now adopted highly hygienic scientific techniques, thanks to efforts made by the District Rural Development Agency.

For the women of Periyathaazhai, drying up of fish is not an art, as they dried up the unsold fish, particularly smaller varieties, on the sandy beach unhygienically.

As a result, the products contained lots of sand particles and it took long - even beyond five days. During rainy season, they faced more problems, as maggots started developing in the half-dried fish. Above all, they could not get the right price for their products owing to the presence of the sand in the fish.

But things have totally changed here after they were exposed to the solar fish-drier, capable of drying 250 kg of fish in just eight hours hygienically.

The fisherwomen attached to the Annai Teresa self-help group of Periyathaazhai dry fish and pack it neatly. Since this is so clean, producers get a handsome price, which is unbelievable for the women.

While the building to house the machinery was constructed by the DRDA at a cost of Rs.3.50 lakhs, the solar fish-drier was purchased at a cost of Rs.5.50 lakhs.

The solar heat is concentrated and passed on to metal plates on which the neatly cleaned fish is kept. Since the heat generated in this technique is only optimum, no damage is caused to the fish during this process.

Members of the Annai Teresa SHG claim that the dried fish being produced in this method could be kept even up to one and a half years, as germs in the fish were killed thanks to the solar heat.

Since the intensity of the solar light in this coastal hamlet is so good throughout the year, there may not be any problem during the monsoon, the members believe.

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