Most aquaculture regulations and certification schemes focus at the individual farm level. Vietnamese catfish production grew from 50,000 tons in 2000 to more than 1 million tons in 2010, even though the country’s total catfish pond area only doubled during that time.įocus beyond the farm. For example, in Vietnam, a breakthrough in catfish breeding around the year 2000-complemented by widespread adoption of high-quality pelleted feed-unlocked a boom in production growth and intensification.
These sorts of innovations-whether led by farmers, research institutions, companies, or governments-have been behind productivity gains in every part of the world. Improvements in breeding technology, disease control, feeds and nutrition, and low-impact production systems are interlinked areas where science can complement traditional knowledge to improve efficiency. Aquaculture is a young industry-decades behind that of livestock farming. Invest in technological innovation and transfer. Our report recommends five approaches to help get aquaculture growth right: Getting Aquaculture Growth Right: 5 Approaches And unless the aquaculture industry is able to boost productivity, the limited availability of land, water, and feed may constrain its growth. However, doubling aquaculture production without further increasing the industry’s efficiency could lead to a doubling of environmental impacts. The aquaculture industry has greatly improved performance over the past 20 years, producing more farmed fish per unit of land and water, lowering the share of fishmeal and fish oil in many aquaculture feeds, and largely stopping mangrove conversion. However, as with all forms of food production, aquaculture isn’t without its environmental impacts.Īs aquaculture began to boom in the 1990s, several concerns emerged such as the clearing of mangroves to make way for shrimp farms in Asia and Latin America, increased use of fishmeal and fish oil made from wild marine fish, and the generation of water pollution and shrimp and fish diseases. On average, farmed fish convert feed to edible food as efficiently as poultry, making them an attractive option for expanding the global animal protein supply. Aquaculture’s Impacts: Encouraging Trends, but Challenges Remain It uncovers several strategies that can lessen aquaculture’s environmental impacts while also ensuring that fish farming provides employment and nutritious food to millions more people. Our new paper, Improving Productivity and Environmental Performance of Aquaculture, examines aquaculture’s environmental footprint today and explores various scenarios of aquaculture growth to 2050. WRI partnered with WorldFish, the World Bank, INRA, and Kasetsart University to explore this question. The question is: Can aquaculture grow sustainably? New research shows that aquaculture production will need to more than double again between now and 2050 to meet the demands of a growing population. As the global wild fish catch peaked in the 1990s, aquaculture-or fish farming-has grown rapidly to meet world fish demand, more than doubling production between 20. Finfish and shellfish currently make up one-sixth of the animal protein people consume globally. The world’s appetite for fish is steadily growing. All pieces are based on research being conducted for the forthcoming World Resources Report.
This post is an installment of WRI’s blog series, “ Creating a Sustainable Food Future.” The series explores strategies to sustainably feed 9 billion people by 2050.