Aquaculture inputs and resource usePatrick White and Nelly Isyagi

Overview of the Presentation• Introduction to Aquaculture• Aquaculture value chain• Aquaculture stakeholders• Use of resources by aquaculture• Water• Land • Feed (fish meal and fish oil)• Energy

Definition of AquacultureAccording to Shell, 1993

‘Aquaculture is the planned and purposeful intervention in the production of aquatic animals’

Aquatic animals can include• Fish• Crustaceans• Molluscs• Seaweed and microalage

Aquaculture• Aquaculture continues to be the fastest-growing animal-

food-producing sector. • Total aquaculture production from both inland and

marine waters supplies 42% of total supply (including plants and non-food products). • However, aquaculture supplies more that 50 % of all

seafood produced for human consumption. • FAO estimates that another 40 million tons of seafood

worldwide per year will be needed by 2030 just to meet current consumption rates.• Therefore world aquaculture production is expected to

continue to grow in the coming decade, however the rate of increase is expected to decrease.

Fisheries and AquacultureWorld capture fisheries and aquaculture production

Aquaculture• There has been rapid increase in global

aquaculture production through increase in the number of farms, farmed area and intensification. • This has led to a call for more responsible

management, due to global concern on the use of natural resources within their ecosystems.

Global aquaculture production (aquatic plants excluded)

In 2008, total farmed production from Africa was 955,000 tonnes, of which Egypt accounted for 73%. By far the largest part of this production was freshwater fish. Source: FAO Fishstat.

Aquaculture production in Africa

Source: FAO Fishstat

Types of aquaculture - location Location• Land based

• Sea based

Types of aquaculture

Culture species• Fish – marine, brackish water and

freshwater

• Molluscs – oysters, mussels, clams

• Crustaceans – shrimp and crayfish

• Plants - seaweed

Types of aquaculture - intensity

Culture intensity• Intensive – fed with complete diets at

relatively high density

• Semi-intensive – fertilised pond and sometime supplementary feed at low density

• Extensive – some management but fish mainly fed by natural productivity

Types of aquaculture - scale

Scale• Small scale farm – family run or small

business

• Large scale farm – company managed or large business

Types of aquaculture - Number

Number• Individual farm – small, medium

or large enterprises

• Clusters of farms – clusters of small-scale producers (aquaculture park) clusters of larger scale farms (Aquaculture zone)

Fed and unfed aquaculture

• Aquaculture production can be divided into 2 categories, Fed or fertilized aquaculture and unfed or extractive aquaculture. • Fed aquaculture. With fed aquaculture, all

the nutrients that are added are not fully utilized by fish production and the excess is released into the environment. Fed has been criticized as net resource losers in terms of nutrient or wild fish resources

• Non-fed Aquaculture. One-third of all farmed food fish production (20 mt) is currently achieved without artificial feeding, as is the case for seaweed, bivalves and filter-feeding carps.

The aquaculture production processThe process of production and consumption of aquaculture production can be divided into 5 steps:1. Production2. Harvesting3. Processing (and packing)4. Marketing5. Utilisation

Aquaculture Value Chain

Aquaculture Value ChainThe aquaculture value chain includes:• Upstream inputs: the supplies and raw materials

the operation needs to be able to such as feed, seed, fertiliser• Production: the process of transforming inputs into

marketable aquatic products and services• Private Service providers: providing the services to

the producer to assist them• Other services: Other support services heath,

environmental monitoring, etc.• Downstream outputs: the processing, packing and

distribution of finished goods

Simplified Aquaculture value chain

Broodstock

Hatchery

Nursery

Grow Out

Basic Processing

Value Adding

Wholesale Distribution

Food Service Retail

End Consumer

Aquaculture Policy and Regulation

Raw materials

Feedsuppliers

Equipment suppliers

Service providers

Upstream Downstream

Detailed catfish value chain

Aquaculture stakeholdersThe World Bank (1996) defines two types of

stakeholders: • primary stakeholders who are directly affected

(positively or negatively)• secondary stakeholders who are indirectly

affected Secondary stakeholders include those who have technical expertise and/or links to primary stakeholders, e.g. non-governmental organizations (NGOs), various intermediary or representative organizations and technical and professional bodies. They often represent public interests.

Stakeholders related to value chainUpstream Production DownstreamNet and cage makers Farmer Fish brokersPond construction companies

Farm employees Fish wholesalers

Equipment suppliers Absentee landlord Fish Traders

Hatchery fry producers Services Ice suppliersNursery fry producers Private service providers

(consultants, advisers, insurance, finance)

Fish transporters

Feed manufacturers Government service (environmental monitoring)

Exporters

Fertiliser suppliers Academic service suppliers (research and training)

Fish processors

Global resources and competing claims on those resources

The main limitations to aquaculture development are;• Access to clean water supply• Access to space that is not competing with other

coastal users• Sustainable supply of fish meal and fish oil

ingredients for fish feed• Environmental impacts on water resources

24 – 27 October 2007 WAS Istanbul - Competing Claims

Limited water resources ?Although water covers about 70.8% of the

Earth’s surface, it is only a thin filmThe world contains an estimated

1,400 million km3 of water

1400 mill km3 =1388 km diameter

What does this blue ball signify?

Total water resources

Total water resources

• The majority of the water resource (97.5%) is salt water • Only 2.5% is fresh water• 70% of the freshwater is frozen in the polar ice caps• 30% is mostly present as soil moisture or lies in

underground aquifers. • Less than 1% of the world's fresh water is readily

accessible for direct human uses. It is found in lakes, rivers, reservoirs and in underground sources shallow enough to be tapped at affordable cost.

Freshwater resources45,000 km3 = 44 km diameter

Water resource use• Water use in aquaculture can be extreme—as high

as 45 m3/kg of fish production (FAO). • Globally about 1.2 m3 (or 1200 liters) of water is

needed to produce 1 kg of grain used in animal feed.• A kg of tilapia can be produced with no consumptive

freshwater use (cages, seawater farming systems), or using as little as 50 L of freshwater.• Seawater aquaculture systems (mariculture) can use

brackishwaters unsuitable for agriculture; plus, integrated, land-based saltwater faming is possible.

Water resource use

Water resource use comparisonCase study culture system m3/t

Shrimp pond culture, Vietnam 47,500 AquaClimate

Beef 15,000 -43,000 Smil (2008); Pimentel and Pimentel (2003)

Shrimp pond culture, India 33,155 AquaClimate

Pork 10,000 Smil (2008)

Milkfish pond culture, Philippines 8,010 AquaClimate

Pork 6,000 Pimentel and Pimentel (2003)

Chicken 4,000 Smil (2008)

Broiler Chickens 3,500 Pimentel and Pimentel (2003)

Egg production 2,700 Verdegem et al. (2006)

Milk production 2,700 Verdegem et al. (2006)

Pangasius pond culture, Vietnam 1,327 AquaClimate

Land resource use• Aquaculture uses land in two ways. • Aquaculture facilities occupy a defined area or

space on land or in water; however, facility area accounts for only a portion of the total land or water area needed to produce an aquaculture crop.

• Additional ecosystem area is needed to provide support or service functions such as food production and waste treatment.

• Land-based aquaculture converts land surface area to water surface area. Pond production data reflect this land use when reported as biomass harvested per unit water surface area.

24 – 27 October 2007 WAS Istanbul - Competing Claims

Land resource use

Resources for fish feed. • Aquaculture was the largest consumer of fishmeal and oil

in 2002 using about 46 percent of the global fishmeal supply and 81 percent of the global fish oil supply. • These percentages were anticipated to increase to 57%

and 97% of global supply respectively by 2010.

Fish feed• Nutrient requirement for the fish and shrimp production

in ponds is provided either by natural productivity of the pond or by feed. • This ratio varies with the culture system. • The efficiency of feed use varies between species, feed

quality and feeding strategy. This can vary between culture systems and species where the feed conversion rate far salmon is close to 1:1, Milkfish cage production at 2.5:1 using inert feeds to grouper cage production at 5:1 using trash fish.• In some cases aquaculture feed often incorporates high

levels of fish meal and fish oil provided from wild stocks and so aquaculture fish may not be a net producer of fish.

Fish feed requirement• For semi intensive culture systems a large

proportion of the nutrient requirements are provided by pond water productivity (phytoplankton, zooplankton and other microorganisms) which is enhanced by using organic and/or inorganic fertilisers. • For intensive culture systems almost all the

nutrient requirements are provided by inert feeds. • Pescivore fish require fish meal and fish oil to

provide essential fatty acids and amino acids

Fish Oil• Fish oil also is a component of some of

aquaculture feeds and there is a finite supply.• The yield of fish oil from reduction fisheries is

significantly lower than the yield of fish meal. • This suggests that fish oil may in the future be a

scarcer commodity than fish meal for use in aquafeeds. • It takes 10 to 20 kg live fish to produce a

kilogram of fish oil, but the quantity varies greatly by species and season.

Fish meal• Fish used for making fish meal are provided

primarily from wild pelagic fishery. • In fish meal manufacturing, the ratio of live fish

to fish meal is about 4.5. • Fish meal can also be produced from the offal

from processing of wild-caught or aquacultured fish.

Fish-in Fish-out ratio• One of the current concerns in the aquaculture

sector is the amount of wild fish that is required to produce farmed fish. • A number of different methods have been

developed to calculate the amount of wild fish that it takes to produce one tonne of farmed fish. • One such methodology is based on the Fish-in :

Fish-out ratio (FIFO ratio). Using dry pellets, FIFO ratios can range between 3:1 to 10:1 with a FIFO ratio of 4.9:1 for salmon production

Fish in Fish out ratio

Energy use• There are many uses of energy in aquaculture

including energy used for construction of facilities, production of lime, fertilizers, production and transport of feed and feed ingredients, operation of machines and vehicles during culture and harvesting, processing, transportation, etc. • However, only two of these energy inputs can be

readily estimated at the farm level. These are energy uses for pumping water and for mechanical aeration, and, at the farm level, they are the major, direct energy inputs.

Energy resource use

Energy resource use comparisonComparison of culture systems MJ/t ReferenceShrimp pond culture, India 57,718 AquaClimateNorwegian Chicken 55,000 Munkung and Gheewala, 2007

Swedish Beef 33,000 Munkung and Gheewala, 2007

Pangasius pond culture, Vietnam 1,287 AquaClimate

Shrimp pond culture, Vietnam 517 AquaClimate

Milkfish pond culture, Philippines 2 AquaClimate

Thank you

EuropeanUnion

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

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