热博体育

Farmed fish, shrimps and shellfish account for more than half of all aquatic organisms consumed worldwide, with the other half provided by fishing. In Southeast Asia, these products play a key role in daily diets: this region accounts for 50% of all fish consumed at the global level. With more than 90% of aquaculture products coming from Asia, the sector weighs heavily in both the local economy and the global market.

Moreover, aquaculture farms are experiencing high growth rates accompanied by an intensification of activity. On many farms, this intensification is detrimental to water and land resources, the environment and fish health. If the sector wishes to remain dynamic, the transition to more sustainable practices will be crucial. 热博体育’s scientists are working with their partners to find solutions adapted to local contexts.

Integrated rice-fish systems

热博体育’s scientists are seeking to develop agroecological intensification systems for fish farms, for example by associating aquaculture and rice cultivation (also known as rice-fish farming), and through the Development of Fish Sectors programme, led by , whose actions in Cambodia are coordinated by the . The goal of these systems that combine crops and farming is to make farmers more resilient by diversifying the types of production. A climate or health hazard affecting one of the two activities thus becomes less of a threat, since income is still generated by sales of other products.

According to Jean-Michel Mortillaro, a researcher specialising in aquatic ecology at 热博体育 and an expert in aquaculture systems: “many rice producers in Cambodia concentrate on one or two crop cycles around the rainy season. The problem is that they are dependent on rainfall, which is becoming increasingly irregular and unpredictable with climate change. Rice-fish farming encourages the management of water resources for climate-smart aquaculture, and improves farm resilience thanks to diversified agrosystems”.

Waste management for circular production

In addition to climate change, another major challenge for aquaculture concerns environmental pollution linked to these activities. In Vietnam, more than 50% of national aquaculture output is produced by intensive systems, with solid waste, most of which comes from fish feed, estimated at one million tonnes in 2020.

This waste is a major source of pollution, being high in nitrogen and phosphorus. In addition, it generates considerable economic losses for farms. In the context of a project financed by the Solidarity Fund for Innovative Projects of the French Embassy in Vietnam, 热博体育 contributes* to developing solutions to reduce the waste from intensive aquaculture, to recover this waste linked to fish feed and to recycle it into livestock feed or organic fertilisers. The objective of this project, entitled “3R for climate-smart aquaculture in the lower Mekong delta in Vietnam” is to reduce, recycle and reuse as much of this solid waste as possible. This circular use of feed will help to increase the economic profitability of the activity, but also to create local jobs and to reduce the carbon footprint of the fish produced.

“Reducing just 10% of waste would enable huge progress”, says Kazi Ahmed Kabir, a 热博体育 researcher who specializes in aquaculture and fisheries. “Studies still need to be conducted on reuse and recycling, especially for use in aquaculture for other species, but also for other agricultural activities”.

Networking for large-scale agroecological transitions

The importance of cooperation is highlighted through a new network of scientific partners from Asia, Africa and Europe focusing on sustainable aquaculture: IRN ASACHA, or International Research Network on Agroecology for Sustainable Aquaculture in a context of global CHAnges.

Whether to work on the perception of innovative agrosystems or on their agronomic and economic performances, these solutions implemented in Cambodia and Vietnam require the integration of numerous disciplines. From economics to genetics, via sociology and nutrition, the members of the ASACHA network aim to develop generic approaches to ecological intensification in aquaculture farms; solutions that need to be adapted to local contexts, with the resulting good practices disseminated on a large scale.

* In the context of the 3R project, 热博体育 is working in collaboration with , the , and the Foreign Trade University. The French partners of the project are and .