| | Navigate the Atlas:  | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| | | State of World Aquaculture |
| |
|  As farming systems intensify, either in terms of increased stocking density and consequent nutrient input or in terms of number of farms per unit area, the need to develop environmentally cleaner or 'greener' feeding strategies becomes greater. The net results of excess nutrient loss are an economic loss to the farmer with a potential deterioration of the aquatic environment within and possibly outside the farm, subsequently increasing stress on the cultured animals and increased susceptibility to disease. Thus, feeding regimes should be designed to minimize nutrient loss and faecal output, and to maximize nutrient retention and the health status of the cultured species. Such actions would in turn help to improve the social acceptance of and confidence in the sector in terms of aquatic resource use and environmental sustainability. In this respect, feed manufacturers have the very important responsibility of ensuring that the feed they provide to farmers is both nutritionally correct for the intended farming production system and is managed correctly by the farmer.Aquaculture has shown rapid expansion in recent years, equivalent to growth year on year close to 10% since the late 1980s. In comparison, livestock meat production has been growing at around 3% per year over the same period and the output from capture fisheries has actually fallen. | | | | Fish farming can provide livelihoods, not only for small-scale farmers, but also through larger scale commercial operations. When properly balanced with social and environmental needs, commercial aquaculture can bring benefits of poverty reduction and hunger elimination to the disadvantaged, through the generation of employment and stimulation of the economy. The commercial sector is also better placed to bring about technical innovation, reduce operating costs and grow products acceptable to a wider range of consumers. | | | | The challenge for aquaculture in the new millennium is to expand sustainable aquaculture to achieve enhanced food security and economic development for the world's people. There is every prospect that this can be realised if the mechanisms can be found to improve support to existing producers, spread successful methods to new regions, and boost the regional and international transfer of information and technology. | | | | In 1998, total world production of finfish, crustaceans, (shrimps, prawns, crabs etc.), and molluscs, (e.g. clams, oysters, mussels), from capture fisheries and aquaculture reached 117.2 million mt. A quarter of the fish eaten in the world now comes from aquaculture. The inclusion of aquatic plants raises total production by a further 9.6 million mt to 126.8 million mt, an overall increase of 19.9 million mt in the 10 years since 1989. | | | | While total production from the capture fisheries sector had fallen 3.4% during that 10 year period, the supply from aquaculture had more than doubled, from 16.5 million mt in 1989 to a total of 39.4 million mt in 1998. 4.4 million mt of this increase was of aquatic plants. | | | | Aquaculture by 1998 was providing 31% of total fisheries supply, compared to only 15% in 1989. The total value of aquaculture production reached US$ 52.5 billion in 1998 - double the figure of a decade earlier - and much of this increase originated from the Low Income Food Deficit Countries (LIFDCs), in particular China. This reflects the continuing trend in LIFDC countries of increased use of aquatic resources to further diversify food production. | | | | Regional Growth of Aquaculture | | | | Regional, cultural and historic factors have played major roles in influencing both the size of the production base and the rate of expansion of aquaculture in different parts of the world. An historic tradition of growing fish in Asia has provided the background for the region's dominant role in the sector in modern times. Asia accounted for over 90% of world aquaculture output in the late 1990s, regional production having increased from 14.3 million mt to over 35.8 million mt between 1989 and 1998, equivalent to growth of nearly 11% per year. Much of this expansion was in China where the year on year increase was around 15%. In the rest of Asia, growth has been closer to 3% per year, similar to that in Europe and North America (3 - 4%). In Africa and Latin America the aquaculture production base a decade ago was considerably smaller and so there has been added potential for higher rates of expansion. Aquaculture output in Africa has been growing at around 8% per year, while the boom of shrimp and tilapia fish farming in Latin America enabled growth to average 18% per year during the 1990s. | | | | Global Outlook | | | | As world population continues to expand, with current projections being for an increase from 6 billion people in the year 2000 to 9-10 billion by 2050, fisheries products are one of the many food groups that will come under increasing pressure. Just about all the world's natural fisheries resources are fully exploited (many being already over exploited), and the challenge for aquaculture is to expand to meet the future shortfall in fish supplies. A key way forward has been demonstrated over the last decade in China, where a substantial expansion of production has been grounded on small-scale pond culture. Similar growth in other countries could help alleviate poverty and improve the livelihoods and food security of the poor. | | | | Although aquaculture has been practised for many centuries, its expansion and intensification is a modern phenomenon. It is important that, as the industry expands to meet future needs, it does so in an environmentally positive way. This is easier with the production of herbivores than with carnivores. The major potential to meet future human food demand is with herbivorous and omnivorous fish like carps and tilapias, and expansion of this sector needs to be nurtured. Not only are fish such as carps suited to the regions where food for the human population is likely to come under the greatest pressure, but they also can be fitted more readily into a nutrient recycling scheme. Their production additionally avoids the question we have to face with the farming of carnivorous fish: whether it makes sense to use fish (processed into meal) as a key feed ingredient for the fish we are growing for human consumption. In fact the aquaculture sectors using fish protein - the farming of shrimp in ponds and of sea fish in coastal cages - represent less than 10% of total world aquaculture production. Worldwide, most fishmeal is used in the production of pigs and chickens. However, the production of species like shrimp, salmon and bream and so their demand for fishmeal, is likely to continue growing because of their commercial profitability. | | | | |
 | | | | | |
|
|
1076 Topics - 5135 Related Knowledge - 2534 Members - 34 Editors |
