Live Fish Carrier System (LFCS)

The ICAR-Central Institute on Post harvest Engineering and Technology, Ludhiana has developed a system for transporting live fish to help the farmers to sell their produce in live condition and earn more income. The system - "Live Fish Carrier System (LFCS)" runs solely by DC power drawn from four lead acid batteries that is non-polluting. By one time charging, it can run about 80 km with a total carrying capacity of 500 kg. It has all facilities including aeration, filtration and ammonia removal to keep fish alive during transportation. The fish mortality is less than 1% per trip of 40 km with carps of 0.5-1.5 kg individual weight. The vehicle is useful for both freshwater and saltwater fishes. The capacity of the present system is 100 kg live fish per trip, however this capacity can be increased by enhancing the carrying capacity of the vehicle. LFCS can be utilized in live table fish transportation from culture pond to retail market, live fingerlings transportation for aquaculture, live brood fish transportation for breeding purposes, ornamental fish transportation for commercial purpose, transportation of live fish for research purpose and transportation of live fish for conservation purposes, such as, river ranching. The LFCS can also be used as mobile fish selling shop by fish retailers.

The ICAR-CIPHET (Ludhiana) has licensed this technology to E-Magic Electric, Jalandhar through Agrinnovate India Ltd., New Delhi. A patent application for LFCS has been filed to Indian Patent Office. This technology has also been accepted by International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) for further promotion.

The cost of present vehicle is approx ₹2.0 lakh for the complete system. The payback period is only 0.21 years (2.5 months), whereas, Discounted Payback Period is 0.3 years (3.59 months), the Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of LFCS is 354.5% indicating highly profitable venture.

Features and advantages:

1. The LFCS has automatic aeration, filtration and evaporative cooling system ensuring continuous availability of good quality water and less fish mortality (<1%).
2. Its water requirement is less than 50% as compared to the traditional systems.
3. LFCS requires only 1 (one) worker which is otherwise 4-5 workers in case of traditional system, thus reducing cost of labour.
4. It ensures supply of freshest quality of fish to the consumers.
5. It is a zero polluting system with less running cost for marginal farmers/ entrepreneurs.
6. The system is woman-friendly and can be operated by one or two women.

(Source: ICAR-Central Institute on Post harvest Engineering and Technology, Ludhiana)