Alternative feeds and genetics set to underpin the sustainable development of the Aquaculture industry
Eachmile attended The Aquaculture Roundtable Series conference in Bali with a focus this time on Aquafeed with the title Fit for Future.
Aquaculture, which is the farming or ranching of animals and plants in either marine, brackish or freshwater, is one of the fastest growing industries on the planet. With production from capture fisheries plateauing at 90 million tons per year, we have seen aquaculture grow to equal what we catch from the wild in just a few decades.
It makes sense. The planet is 75% water. The animals and plants that grow in water are neutrally buoyant and do not need to invest energy into growing thick bones or trunks to fight gravity and hold themselves up off the ground and instead can divert that energy into growth and reproduction — kelp can grow as much as two feet in a day!
Feed conversion ratios — the amount of feed used to get a kilogram of meat — are the lowest in aquatic animals. This means that we can grow a lot more for a lot less. All of this means much more of the salmon, barramundi, tilapia, catfish etc. consumed in the world today is from farms rather than coming from the wild. Same for oysters and mussels.
To feed the more than 10 billion people that might be on the planet in 2050, it is estimated that aquaculture needs to grow 10% a year to meet that demand. However it must do so sustainably and there are a number of challenges to meet.
One of the most critical challenges we face is the feed used in aquaculture. Known as aquafeeds, there has been a reliance on protein (fishmeal) and oil (fish oil) from the capture and milling of wild forage fish — sources that are not growing. Thus the aquafeed industry has been examining fishmeal and fish oil replacements and using plant-based sources of protein and oil such as soy/chickpea and canola/rapeseed etc. However, plants can contain anti-nutritional factors and thus innovative companies such as DSM have been producing enzymes and other supplements to improve feed digestibility and the health and welfare of the animals, as well as minimise waste and the environmental impact of feeds. Other biotechnology companies such as Calysta and Protix are using fermentation technology and insect larvae respectively to provide the protein, and Veramaris is short-circuiting the food chain to produce fish oil from algae. These innovations are all helping to underpin the sustainable development of the industry.
Other ways to improve the use of feed have been realised through genetic selection. That is, selecting strains that not only maximise the genetic potential but also increase feed intake and utilisation as well minimising the amount of energy animals need to spend on maintaining basic metabolism.
WorldFish, a publicly funded research organisation whose goal is to reduce poverty and hunger through aquaculture, created Genetically Improved Farmed Tilapia (GIFT) that grow up to 85% faster than other tilapia.
In addition to feed and genetic developments we are also seeing integrated multi-trophic aquaculture systems: where the waste from growing carnivores can be used to grow other animals and plants in the same system — both improving productivity, returns on investment and reducing environmental impact. Here in Singapore, in collaboration with the local campus of Australia’s James Cook University and through the establishment of the Aquaculture Innovation Centre, there will soon be a lot more research underway into this very important industry. Eachmile Technologies will be looking to provide its solutions to incentivise the gathering of data to underpin this vital research.
