Production of Fish Value Added Items Helping on Livelihood Enhancement of Fisherwomen of Poompuhar, Sirkazhi Taluk, Nagapattinam District in Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract

The fish for all Research and Training centre of poompuhar was established with the support from Jamsetji Tata trust and Tata educational trust and has been conceptualized in response to the felt need of the coastal communities along Tamil Nadu coast as a result of the interactions held after the Tsunami of 2004. The long time strategy of the Centre aims at bringing about a collective and holistic approach for the coastal community in the field of natural resources management, training and capacity building and also sustainable livelihood options. With this idea in mind a few self-help groups of fisherwomen were formed and given training on various aspects of hygienic preprocessing of fish and preparation of value added items. The activities of the self-help groups in preparing various value added items of fish such as shrimp idly powder, ready to cook fish ,dry fish ,masala dry fish ,fish pickles, prawn pickle and how these activities have helped to enhance the livelihood of the women are described in this presentation.