A step towards cleaner & stench-free Navi Mumbai: NMMC to process fish waste into poultry feed

Navi Mumbai: The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) has launched a pilot project to manage the waste generated at fish markets scientifically and make the premises cleaner and stench-free.

As a part of the initiative, a 'feed' production plant that processes fish waste has been set up at Diwale FishMarket in Belapur, in association with the Fishworkers Welfare Federation of India (FWEI). The FWEI has set up a grinder kind of machine at its own expense which will finely grind around 200kg of fish waste at a time and convert it into soluble feed. “The daily discards that range from 500-800kg can be used as feed in aqua and poultry sectors,” said an NMMC official.

FWEI takes responsibility for project

“Such projects have been implemented in private institutions in a few cities. However, this is the first project in the country by a local self-government body,” said the official from NMMC's solid wastemanagement department.

The FWEI has taken the entire responsibility for the project, from providing the necessary machinery to maintaining it. A memorandum of understanding has been signed between FWEI and NMMC in this regard.

“The technology for the project has been approved by the Indian Council of Agriculture Research. There are plans to implement this system in other fish markets in a phased manner,” said the official. He added that the soluble fish food produced from a trial batch of 50kg has been sent to the ICAR laboratory for testing.