: In order to produce wealth from the fish waste, an agro-based startup has been developed in Baleswar.
Dr Siddhartha Pati, founder and Dr Debabrata Panda, co-founder, have established the agro-biotechnology firm named NatNov Bioscience in the district to generate economically viable goods from fish waste.
According to them, among the seafood used globally, shellfish consumption is in great demand. The utilisation of these shellfish such as prawn and shrimp has opened a new market for the utilisation of the shellfish wastes. Shrimp processing plants produce huge amounts of shrimp and prawn shell waste which is discarded in the environment without any treatment. Large quantities of wasted shrimp byproducts are generated every year by shrimp processing industries along coastal Odisha.
These wastes comprise 30 to 40 percent by weight of the shrimp raw material, depending on the species. The underutilisation of shrimp head wastes poses a problem for the processing plants and improper disposal of these wastes contributes to environmental issues on a larger scale. In addition, shells and appendages increase the waste load and provide excessive nutrients to the adjacent bodies of water leading to enhancement of the biochemical oxygen demand and reduces the oxygen concentration in water, they said .
Considering the shrimp shell for the generation of high value products and aiming zero-waste production, they are processed on the principles of a bioconversion, they further added.
The technology not only converts fish waste into valuables but also contributes towards Swachh Bharat Abhiyan of the Indian Government. The startup works towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals 11 and Odisha’s first project support for sustainable bio- economy.
