About Us

Leveraging Internet of Things (IoT), Machine Learning (ML), Fisheries Science and a proven grass-root connect with marginalized fishing communities, Aquatic Livelihoods helps these fishers build resilient livelihoods through sustainable backyard aquaculture. We design precision aquaculture systems with sub-systems for sensors based water quality monitoring and forwarding the sensor data to our machine learning algorithm, to generate data-driven, actionable insights. We are also working on self-sustaining local aquaculture ecosystem model with localized production of environmentally sustainable fish seed and fish feed, complemented with grow-out culture. Our motto is "Precision Aquaculture for All", and we want to make precision aquaculture systems a household success story. Along with the technology and people's participation as the driving force, Aquatic Livelihoods is committed to changing the status quo for fisheries in India and make inclusive the blue revolution growth story unfolding here. We believe in gender justice and protecting our aquatic habitats for future generations. For the end consumer, our endeavour is to provide them a whole variety of safe-to-eat and traceable fishes/ allied products. Aquatic Livelihoods is currently incubated at Central Institute of Fisheries Education (CIFE), Mumbai, for Fisheries Sciences related assistance.

Team

• Deepen Modi (Founder, only full-time employee) :- Deepen holds a MA in Social Work from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS)- Mumbai, along with MBA in Finance, and BE in Comp. Sc. and engg.. He has approx. 10 years of experience in Capital Markets and approx. 5 years in Development Sector. Deepen also holds various certificates from MPEDA (Marine Product Export Development Authority, India) and CIFE (Central Institute of Fisheries, Mumbai) for short-term aquaculture training programs.
• Abhinav Agarwal (Advisor for Product Management) :- Abhinav holds a B.Tech. from IIT Bombay. He has approx. 8 years of experience in Capital Markets/ Product Management, and he was also co-founder of a start-up acquired by Yatra.com.
• Parag Sheth (Advisor for IoT Development) :- Parag holds a BE in Electronics and Commnunications. Parag has approx. 14 years of experience in managing technology business, and he is currently Managing Director of a MSME Automation company.
• Dr. Manish Shrivastava (Advisor for Machine Learning Development) :- Dr.Manish holds a Ph.D. from IIT Bombay, and BE in Computer Science and engineering. He has approx. 11 years of experience in NLP/ ML/ AI research, and he is currently Assistant Professor at IIIT Hyderabad.
• Dr. Kumud Modi (Advisor for Environmental Chemistry) :- Dr.Kumud holds a Ph.D. from Barkatullah University, Bhopal. She has approx. 40 years of experience in Chemistry research and academics, and she was Principal of PMBG Science College, Indore.

Products

Precision Aquaculture Systems

We are currently building our first prototype for backyard aquaculture, in form of a RAS (Recirculating Aquaculture System) for Mud Crab (Syclla Serrata) aquaculture, with a tribal fishing community in Mumbai. This community collects Mud Crabs from near-by Mangroves, and despite these Mud Crabs being a highly prized seafood commodity (if you've the right size/ weight product), this community is struggling to make their ends meet as they catch small-sized mud crabs, and sell them, as is, in the local market. However, unregulated practice of wild based capture of mud crabs, everywhere, is leading to a rapid decline in their wild population. Many fishers from this community take up daily wage labour jobs near-by as the income from their traditional fishing livelihood is not sufficient. Based on our extensive fieldwork and around 4 years of extensive exploration of mud crab trade/ consumption dynamics, and after consulting various fishing communities, fisheries scientists, bureaucrats, development sector professionals, and technologists, we came up with this prototype.
Our aim through this prototype building is to provide environmentally sustainable, financially remunerative, and round-the-year resilient livelihoods.