Recent Publications on Aquafeed

announce the publication of FAO Non-Serial Publication Paper “Improving feed conversion ratio and its impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions in aquaculture”. This FAO Non-Serial Publication presents a narrative report of an FAO/GSI workshop held
in Liberia, Costa Rica including the conclusion
and recommendations, summaries of technical presentation given at the workshop, a compendium of the PowerPoint presentations made in workshop, and an excel-based greenhouse gas tool for quantifying greenhouse gas emissions arising from aquaculture. The rationale of this study undertaken was to i) assess the current GHG contributions of aquaculture, related to feeds and feeding, and understand ways to measure it; ii) explore current potential for reducing feed conversion ratio (FCR) for a range of important and commercially significant species, and therefore continuing to improve their environmental performance including reductions
in GHG and iii) explore potential transfer of feed
and feeding technologies and lessons learnt from
the well-developed salmon farming industry to
other freshwater and marine species such as carps, catfishes, tilapia and shrimps. The findings of this study identified several factors that impact FCRs, particularly in species farmed in developing countries, which could be targeted with programs that ultimately would reduce GHG and other emissions. The study concluded that managing environmental aspects, simplifying farm management through improved farm monitoring systems, and improving feed management, would improve FCRs and reduce GHG emissions.

Hasan, M.R. & Soto, S. 2017. Improving feed conversion ratio and its impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions in aquaculture. FAO Non-Serial Publication. Rome, FAO. 33 pp.

FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department is pleased announce the publication FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Technical Paper “Greenhouse gas emissions from aquaculture: a life cycle assessment of three Asian systems”. This technical paper was prepared as a part of the FAO’s Strategic objective (SO2): Increase and improve provision of goods and services from AG, FO and FI. This publication will contribute to the organizational outcome 20101: producers and natural resource managers adopt practices that increase and improve the provision of goods and services in agricultural sector production systems in a sustainable manner. The rationale of this study is to broaden the understanding of aquaculture’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and the potential mitigation through the management of aquaculture feeds and feeding. This study was carried out on three aquaculture systems:  Nile tilapia in Bangladesh, Indian major carps in India and striped catfish in Viet Nam in order to estimate the possible scale of greenhouse gas emissions in aquaculture in Asia.  The analysis was intended to improve the understanding of where and how GHG emissions arise in Asian aquaculture, whilst highlighting weaknesses in the currently available data.  The results of this study will guide future studies on where to improve the data and on how to develop cost-effective ways of improving aquaculture performance and reducing emissions. This report highlights the variation within each farming system at every stage of the three Asian aquaculture systems. The report makes some suggestions for methods, which potentially could reduce emission intensities related to the farming systems, but applying best practices uniformly on farms and thus increasing efficiencies appear to be major factors for improvement.

Robb, D.H.F., MacLeod, M., Hasan, M.R. & Soto, D. 2017. Greenhouse gas emissions from aquaculture: a life cycle assessment of three Asian systems. FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Technical Paper No. 609. Rome, Italy, FAO. 92 pp.

• Feed mill collated data
• Farm and market collated data

FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department is pleased announce the publication of the Report of the FAO Expert Workshop on Sustainable Use and Management of Artemia Resources in Asia. The FAO Expert Workshop on ‘Sustainable Use and Management of Artemia Resources in Asia’ was convened in Tianjin, China, from 7–9 November 2016. The objective of this workshop was to bring together a critical amount of key people, active in the field of Artemia biological research, exploitation or use, with as ultimate goal to define the organisational structure for the sustainable management of the Artemia resources in China, both inland and coastal, and their optimal use in aquaculture. The workshop convened in plenary throughout the duration of the workshop and the participants attended a variety of presentations related to (1) History of Artemia study and use; (2) Artemia biodiversity and sustainable management of Artemia resources; (3) Contribution of Artemia in biological and medical research; and (4) Application of Artemia in aquaculture in the first day of the workshop. During the second day a field trip was organised to visit Artemia pond culture and cyst processing centre, and to a number of aquaculture facilities. The third day was entirely dedicated to plenary discussions and following the general plenary discussion, the participants identified a number of recommendations in order to stimulate the use of Artemia as an aquaculture commodity, its study as an element of biodiversity and its use as biological model organism. The recommendations addressed the need for the establishment of an Asian Regional Artemia Reference Centre (AR-ARC) in China within the immediate future, the agreement that TUST is well-positioned to host this AR-ARC in view of is track record and expertise in Artemia studies, and the participants’ commitment to support the establishment, organisation and functioning of the AR-ARC. A number of actions were proposed, related to the internal organisation and external linkage of the AR-ARC, and short- and mid-term deliverables, to be produced by the AR-ARC.

FAO. 2017. Report of the FAO Expert Workshop on Sustainable Use and Management of Artemia Resources in Asia. Tianjin, China, 7–9 November 2016. FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Report No. 1198, Rome, Italy. 24 pp.