The proposed project was undertaken with a view to promote fish drying using efficient biomass fish dryers. This project brought forward two approaches of drying fish. The first approach was of sun drying the fish, and the other one was electric drying of fish. The sun drying of fish was done either on floors or on beaches, which involved low investment and no additional energy input. The disadvantage with this method was the intermittent nature of solar energy throughout the day and different times of the year. It also led to contamination of the food material by dirt or insects, causing spoilage and losses etc. The net result was low hygiene and contamination of fish, and the only alternative was to have electric drying, which was a high investment technology and used only in industries. Thus, the project aimed at providing biomass-fired dryers for drying various products such as vegetables, fruits, herbs, spices and fish. The main thrust behind this project was to introduce fish drying operations, which provided hygiene, which was cost effective, and could be operated at small scales. The project also seeked to evolve a technology for its large scale replication and assessing the requirements of a sustainable technology transfer mechanism with the involvement of end-users (women in this case) in fishing.
The main objectives of the project were to:
? Disseminate and popularize an environmentally benign technology amongst the socially and economically backward sections of the society and in the process, contribute positively to climate change initiatives
? Provide opportunities for enhanced incomes for fisher women through appropriate technological intervention
? Empower the community to use a common resource

The project aimed to achieve the above objectives through initial interaction with the fisher- folk, assessment of the current fish drying operation; identifying local NGO working with fishing community; exposure visits to the fisher ?folk to biomass dryers constructed by TIDE; training of fisher women in fish drying and trail production of dried fish; installation of dryers of appropriate capacity in identified locations; setting up of appropriate market linkages; development of mechanism of ?pay and use? for the dryer by members of self help groups and replication of the methodology in other identified locations.