Dear Colleagues,
FI, and in particular FAO’s Aquaculture Branch (FIAA), welcome the initiative.
Aquaculture has a long history of integration with agriculture, especially in Asia. It somewhat fell out of fashion in the early nineties as farmers sought to maximise production and profits from ever more expensive land: the links between on-farm recycling of materials were broken as farmers increasingly moved to monocultures and production of crops, livestock and fish became increasingly dependent on external fertilisers and feeds.
As the challenges of building livelihoods resilient to external threats - including climate change - and improving food security and nutrition increase, attention is turning once again to incorporation of aquaculture into farming systems. Issues to be considered at the farm/watershed scale include the harvesting, storage and use of water, the use of on-farm wastes in aquaculture ponds versus alternative on-farm uses, the use of pond water for crop irrigation, the production of crops (especially vegetables) on pond dykes, and the integration of fish with rice and livestock. While there is a rich literature to draw upon, there remain critical knowledge gaps, including GHG emissions from fish/rice systems and biosafety and livestock/fish systems.
Various perspectives will need to be applied in assessing the merits of incorporating aquaculture in agroecological approaches: impacts on key resources (land, water), soils and biodiversity and on pesticide use and GHG emissions. Other issues are whether the nutrients that farmed fish provide – protein, lipids and micronutrients – can competitively meet the needs of poor consumers. Impacts of adoption of aquaculture on resilience, on on-farm labour and on incomes will be crucial; thus, markets, value chain linkages and value chain governance are important.
New technologies worth exploring in both rural and peri-urban areas include integrated multi-trophic aquaculture, which includes aquaponics (generally, closed recycle systems that utilize wastes produced by farmed fish or other aquatic animals to supplies the nutrients for plants grown hydroponically, which in turn purify the water), as well as the use of artificial substrates for periphyton production.
FIAA is working with SP2 and various departments to develop decision support tools for agroecology and in the development of food systems approaches to food security and malnutrition, including determination of nutritional water productivity.
Thank you for having given us the chance to comment. FI will not, however, be suggesting a name for the Call for Experts for the Project Team for the report.
Best regards,
Manuel Barange
Director FIA
Internal Officer-in-Charge, FI
Manuel Barange