Aquaculture will need to meet the demand for fish and other feed

After tremendous progress in recent decades, the aquaculture sector now needs new principles of government that guarantee their expansion and intensification, that they adopt modern technologies, in an environmentally and socially responsible and economically viable way, declares the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

In this context, experts in the field have published this Wednesday a article series arising from the last World Conference on Aquaculture Millennium +20 held in Shanghai.

“Given that aquaculture currently supplies close to 50% of seafood, and given its potential to contribute to many of the Sustainable Development Goals, we all need to focus on how to strengthen it,” said the deputy director of Aquaculture at the organization.

Xinhua Yuan further stated that “fish and other aquatic products can play an important role in meeting the growing food demands, helping to improve the capacity of recovery of the global food systemwhile meeting the food needs of the poorest”.

The eight articles address critical issues for the sector, such as production methods, social issues and planetary health, nutrition, genetic resources, biosecurity, governance and inclusive access to markets.

“The goal is to meet the global demand for seafood and distribute the benefits fairly, while being careful with social responsibility and pollution,” Yuan added.

Higher productivity, less pollution

New technologies can increase productivity and reduce waste, as well as improve the inclusion of small-scale operators in the sector; Such technologies are already available, but they must be applied in areas where aquaculture production has the greatest potential for growth.

Thus, Asia produces more than 90% of the world total of aquatic animals, and America, Europe and Africa together produce only 8.2%, so it could be developed much more.

In addition, aquaculture practices produce on average less greenhouse gas emissions than other forms of animal production.

Unlike terrestrial agriculture, selective breeding programs to develop more efficient types of aquatic species are greatly underutilized, currently only accounting for about 15% of production. In this sense, some 700 species are currently cultivated worldwide, but close to half of the world production comes from only 12 species.

Other measures that can be adopted are the following:

• The feed improvement has allowed the reduction of the use of ingredients of marine origin, but it can still be reduced further
• Biosecurity must be reinforced and adopt better disease alert systems and regulations that reduce the risk of spreading aquatic epidemic diseases
• Digital and electronic technologies can be harnessed to improve certification protocolssuch as the traceability system and electronic commerce, as well as to expand access to markets
• Countries need to develop and implement a specific legislation to develop the sector sustainably
• Mechanisms should be applied to equitably redistribute costs and benefits between producers and retailers, as well as the responsibility to comply with the certification of sustainability and decent work standards

fish farm in indonesia

Blue Transformation

The publication of these articles as a special number of the World Journal of the Aquaculture Society coincides with the celebration of 12th Session of the Sub-Committee on Aquaculture of the FAO Committee on Fisheries, the intergovernmental forum that guides the Organization in formulating advice on aquaculture and fisheries policies.

One of the main items on the Subcommittee’s agenda, which will take place May 16-19 in Hermosillo, Mexico, is the review of the new Project Voluntary Guidelines for Sustainable Aquaculture. The publication of these thematic reviews provides a useful context for these discussions and, more generally, for the Blue Transformationthe FAO work plan for aquatic food systems between 2022 and 2030.

world aquaculture production

The Organization has estimated that, in 2021, about 126 million tons of aquaculture production live weight, including aquatic animals and algae, of which approximately half consisted of farmed finfish.