A community smoke-fish working shed was inaugurated at Umladkhur village in West Jaintia Hills’ Amlarem on Wednesday. D.M Wallang, project director of the District Rural Development Agency, said the shed is the first of its kind in the State and perhaps the entire country. This will help improve the livelihood of fish farmers as well as augment and upgrade the traditional skills that the people already possess, he added. The Rs 5.4-lakh project is financed by the convergence of MGNREGA and the Meghalaya Institute of Entrepreneurship, Meghalaya Basin Development Authority and DRDA, West Jaintia Hills District. The new working shed has COFISKI Machines sponsored by ICAR-CIFT, Kochi, which improves the quality of the final product by using’ less smoke as opposed to the traditional method of smoking fish. It will be managed by Seng Trea Multipurpose Co-operative Society Ltd.