By Heather Cecilia Phanwar
Thangbuli in West Jaintia Hills is a two-hour ride from Shillong. It is one of the villages in the district famous for smoked fish, locally called kha rang. Once inside the village, the smell of smoked fish and burning firewood hits the olfactory organs and you know you have reached the right place.
Outside Ngom Nongrum’s house, baskets of fish ready to be smoked were lined up. He was busy laying down the slices of firewood inside the work-shed, a tin-roofed spacious room. The traditional smoking equipment were lying in the middle of the room — two long iron rods resting on wooden stands and the firewood arranged neatly in the space between. In one corner of the room stood an improvised machine that was recently installed by Central Institute of Fisheries Technology, Kochi, with the help of the Meghalaya Basin development Authority and the Community and Rural Development Department.
“I prefer the traditional method to the smoking kiln. My customers too prefer fish smoked using the old method,” said 57-year-old Nongrum when asked why the machine was lying like a showpiece.
The smoking kilns were installed recently in two villages, Thangbuli and Umladkhur, with an aim to uplift the socio-economic condition of smoked fish farmers and promote sustainable livelihood.
However, Nongrum, who is smoking fish for the last 27 years, said most of the villagers are using the traditional way.
“The COFISKI (community fish smoking kilns) is of no use and it is too small to smoke huge amount of fish. The machine also uses firewood but the fish do not get proper ventilation because the smoke is trapped inside owing to the small exhaust. Fish is not smoked properly at all and they smell of smoke and most people will not buy it,” explained Nongrum.
In the traditional way, one can smoke 40 kg of fish at once. The medium-sized fish are first cleaned and small pieces of bamboo are put through the mouth. They are then arranged on either side of the iron rods with the firewood burning in the middle. “This is systematic and takes three hours. Every one hour, I have to turn the fish for uniform smoking. But if the machine is used, we can only smoke 10kg at one go and almost in the same time,” he added.
As the room started filling up with dense smoke, another consignment of fish was delivered on Nongrum’s doorstep. He usually buys fish from the market in Jowai, and sometimes from Dawki, and sends the finished product back to the same market. “I usually go for Kha America which is very tasty and expensive too,” he said as he cleaned his teary eyes. By then the work-shed had converted into a smoking chamber.
Twenty-year-old Meio Tariang, who was working inside a less comfortable shed, has a similar opinion about the smoke kiln but he is not as rigid as the veteran farmer. “We are not using the machine as we don’t know if we will be successful. For now we prefer the traditional method and may be later we can use it,” said Tariang, who smokes his fish for six hours. He added that there was no training but instructions were given when the machines were distributed.
However, a senior government official said round 60 beneficiaries from the two villages were trained and “handholding will be continued involving Society for Urban and Rural Empowerment, MGNREGA and basin development unit officials along with the Fisheries Department”.
Tariang uses 40 kg a day and sends the end product to Jowai market where his mother sells them.
Both Nongrum and Tariang said most of the villagers at Thangbuli who are in smoked fish business are using the traditional procedure.
Colbi Rongni, the former headman of Umladkhur, feels the machine is defective and needs modifications.
“It does not have proper ventilation, just a small exhaust for the smoke to come out. The moisture gets accumulated inside and the taste of the fish is spoiled. There is also the problem of smoky smell since the exhaust pipe is small. Modification is needed. The traditional method is done in the open and so the fish is cooked properly,” said Rongni when asked about the COFISKI at Umladkhur.
Another view
But some villagers, like Alma Mulat, said the machine makes work easier. “In the traditional way, smoking the fish takes more than three hours while in the machine it takes only two. I prefer the machine because it does not affect my health, especially my eyes, which always smart from the smoke produced by firewood. During summer if we cook in the machine the fish does not become stale easily while in the traditional method it gets spoiled,” said Mulat of Umladkhur.
In Umladkhur, the COFISKI is kept in a community shed and a humongous concrete fish with its jaws open guards the entrance. The work-shed, which was constructed under MGNREGA, also has the traditional smoking space with a concrete chimney above it to drive out the smoke.
Many villagers at Umladkhur said though one cannot smoke more than 10kg in the machine, “we prefer it”. Around 10 persons work in the shed and they smoke 50kg in a day.
Quality is another area of focus for the villagers. A young woman said there was no work the day before because of the strike. “Fish could not be supplied yesterday and we did not want to give our customers two-day old fish,” she added.
COFISKI is the brainchild of Dr MM Prasad, principal scientist at Central Institute of Fisheries Technology (CIFT).
When he was apprised of the problems of the villagers, Prasad said the traditional method is practised in many states in the northeastern region and even in Odisha and other areas in the coastal belt. “But the huge amount of smoke that emanates during the process is hazardous to health and causes Allergic Bronchopulmonary Aspergillosis, the symptoms of which are similar to tuberculosis. The eyes too smart from the smoke and there is irritation. The smoke cured method using the machine takes care of all these,” he said on phone from Kochi.
Prasad, who heads the department of microbiology, fermentation and biotechnology at CIFT, said the use of too much firewood blackens the product and the fish might not be fit for marketing. Also, “when population was less then it was manageable but with rise in population demand has increased and it won’t be possible to meet it by manual work”.
With time firewood has also become precious and hence COFISKI comes in handy. The machine uses sawdust to produce heat and smoke. “Heat produced in the first half an hour is used for dehydrating. Then the smoke is produced. One needs to close the machine from all sides for effectiveness,” explained the scientist who has visited the villages several times. He told Sunday Shillong that five years ago, Mulat visited Visakhapatnam and saw the machine and wanted Prasad to help the villagers in Jaintia Hills.
Unlike raw fish, smoked fish do not need oil for cooking and is a healthier option. “Smoked fish has a different taste and flavour. Also, it does not take much time to cook. However, doctors recommend against consuming smoked fish daily as it may cause cancer because of the heavy smoke that is used,” said Riquoma Laloo, a consumer. The new machine may help in solving this problem of excessive smoke.
There are seven trays in the smoke kiln. For very small fish, cleaning the intestine is not necessary. Big fish are cut into pieces for easy smoking. Prasad said the aim of the training and using the machine is to also ensure hygienic product. After cleaning, instead of putting the fish on the floor for drying, one can put it on a table or on a net. “Hygiene is the most important element if the smoked fish have to be marketed outside the local areas. During my visit to Jaintia Hills on December 3 last, I saw the farmers doing a really good job as far as maintaining hygiene was concerned,” he asserted.
CIFT has installed 26 machines in the villages, each costing around Rs 40,000, free of cost. The trays made of iron mesh can be rotated so that the fish are uniformly smoked and not charred. “There were many other scientists who worked on the machine. It has been tried and tested and only after that we are installing it. Smoke cured fish are better products and the small and medium-sized fish can be kept for four to five weeks (the traditionally smoked fish can be kept for three days). They can also be sent to markets in Shillong,” said Prasad, who thought of helping poor farmers in Odisha when he first saw them smoking fish about eight years ago.
Earning & other potential
Nongrum and Tariang said the fish they buy cost Rs 100-150 a kg. They sell them for Rs 150-250 a fish depending on the size. The earning per day is around Rs 500.
The fish supplied to Nongrum come after they are being cleaned. “The intestine is also sold at Rs 2,000 a bucket. I engage 10 persons to get firewood and have to pay them too,” he said.
“In this profession there is profit as long as we work. My mother pays me Rs 300 everyday and I stopped going to school also. I dropped out when I was in Class IV. We have been running this business for the last seven years. It has been good for us and we make profit out of it,” said Tariang when asked about the family’s monthly earning from smoked fish.
However, last year business was hit after fish containing formalin were banned in the local markets. Most of the smoked fish traders were out of work for almost two months.
When asked why they do not farm fish in village ponds, Nongrum said the water is polluted because of coal mining in and around the area. “There is a river nearby but it is impossible to produce fish there because of mining that has destroyed the river source and the environment,” he added.
Prasad, who said he was not aware of the coal mining pollution in the villages, has a long-term plan that can help these villagers get a sustainable livelihood. He is planning fish tourism where visitors can smoke fish in the machines themselves. He is also trying to connect small-time fisherwomen and women traders in south India with the smoked fish traders in Meghalaya.
The government has set a time frame of five years (2015-20) for the success of the project. “As part of the programme, implementation of fortified fish powder soup has been expanded to other blocks in the district… Besides, training in hatchery, fish seedling etc was conducted in July 2018 in collaboration with ICAR for 16 progressive farmers of West Jaintia Hills,” said the senior official, adding that various departments and agencies have helped in the process.
On the way to the villages in Amlarem block, the rat-hole coal mines dot the landscape like scars. Heaps of coal are scattered on the barren land on two sides of the highway. Even the greenery looks dull. Illegal coal mining has sucked the life out of the place — the soil has lost fertility, the rivers are polluted and poor villagers are bearing the brunt of greed of a section of people.
At this juncture, smoked fish can be promoted as an alternate livelihood. Large-scale production and use of technology to ensure hygiene can make it a flourishing business, especially for women. After all, loss of livelihood due to ban on coal mining is a major headache for the state government.
(With inputs from Nabamita Mitra & Senti Ao, a contributor)