Sustainable Aquaculture: Why Is It the Need of the Hour?

Introduction

Over the last few decades, the fisheries and aquaculture sector have seen a dramatic change in its dynamics with an overall expansion of production capacity, trade business, and food consumption.

Although the capture fisheries show a little stagnation trend for a few decades, the aquaculture sector is booming.

Emerging aquaculture production systems have a significant potential to curb global food security problems and to meet human nutritional needs with improved environmental performance.

“Aquaculture production is predicted to increase by 32%, from 26 million tonnes in 2018 to 109 million tonnes in 2030.”

What is Sustainable Aquaculture?

Sustainable aquaculture focuses on environmental, economic, and social sustainability to improve capacity building and utilize land effectively for the aquaculture sector.

Aquaculture encompasses a wide range of different aquatic farming practices with regard to species (including seaweeds, molluscs, crustaceans, fish, and other aquatic species groups), environments, and systems utilized, with very distinct resource use patterns involved, offering a wide range of options for diversification of avenues for enhanced food production and income generation in many rural and peri-urban areas.

“In 2030, 90 per cent of all aquatic animal production will be for human consumption, an overall increase of 15 per cent compared with 2020.”

Key Challenges Faced by the Aquaculture Sector

Through time, the aquaculture sector has facing some problems, including the following,

• By 2050, food consumption will be expected to increase from 2400 kcal/day to 3000 kcal/day.
• The share of calories derived from cereals is declining in India.
• There will be around 70 million undernourished people in India by 2050.
• Over the years, there has been a shrinkage of freshwater resources.
• Unavoidable intensification of aquaculture leads to environmental pollution, unprecedented disease occurrence, and causing heavy loss in the end.
• Input costs for aquaculture are rapidly increasing.

Why is Sustainable Aquaculture the Ultimate Solution? 

Sustainable aquaculture is the need of the hour for several reasons.

Firstly, the global population is increasing at an alarming rate, and the demand for food is also increasing.

Aquaculture is a viable solution to meet this growing demand for food as it can produce fish and other seafood at a much faster rate than traditional fishing methods.

“According to FAO, nearly 870 million people out of 7.1 billion world population suffer from malnutrition.”

Secondly, overfishing and pollution have severely depleted wild fish populations, making it necessary to rely on aquaculture to meet the demand for seafood.

Sustainable aquaculture practices can help preserve wild fish populations by reducing the pressure on them.

Thirdly, climate change is affecting the oceans and wild fish populations, making it necessary to have a sustainable and resilient food production system.

Aquaculture can help mitigate the effects of climate change by producing fish in controlled environments, reducing the dependence on wild fish populations that are affected by changing ocean conditions.

Finally, sustainable aquaculture practices can help preserve the biodiversity of the oceans and protect the habitats of wild fish populations.

It is important for the ecological balance of the oceans to ensure the long-term sustainability of seafood production.

Conclusion

Currently, worldwide, there are many components of the aquaculture system that need innovation to solve fishing culture orthodox practices that create problems, including water pollution, fish feed, disease prevention, and maximizing productivity sustainably.

Organica Biotech is one of the leading companies with advanced solutions that can unlock superior aquaculture with natural solutions.

Developed through many years of research, we have redefined the landscape of aquaculture sustainability via Bioflok, Bioclean Aqua Plus, Bioclean Aqua, Bioclean Aqua Hatchery, and Biogut Aqua.

At Organica Biotech, we are revolutionizing aquaculture by deploying innovative research-backed solutions to boost fish immunity and nutrition and reduce the organic burden in the aquaculture ecosystem.