Recognition for salmon sector
The FAO has backed workshop discussing how the feeding model of the salmon industry could be adopted in the culture of numerous freshwater species.
Jointly run by the Global Salmon Initiative (GSI) and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), and taking place in Costa Rica, it seeks to use the model of the salmon farming industry to improve the FCR of other aquaculture sectors, in part because this tends to be directly related to their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
The event, which runs from 9-11 November, has gathered renowned experts on aquaculture feeds, feeding and environmental issues and management, FAO experts and representatives from GSI and the organisers believe that the feeding technologies used by the salmon farming sector could perhaps be adopted (in some form) by species such as tilapia, carps and catfishes and marine shrimp.
Indeed, although every tonne of salmon produced uses a greater proportion of marine ingredients than the equivalent weight of freshwater species production, the FAO observes that: “Given the global aquaculture production and the use of fishmeal even in the freshwater species, it has been estimated that Asia takes an increasing proportion of fishmeal to go in to tilapia, carps and catfish diets, even though the amount used per tonne of fish produced is small, because of the large biomass being produced it accounts for more than a third of the total fishmeal being consumed by aquaculture today.
“On the other hand the GHG contribution, strongly related to FCR and the origin of the feed components is still comparatively high for many aquaculture systems.
“Comparatively, salmon have some of the lowest FCR and considering the moving to terrestrial feed sources (and provided these do not have large carbon footprints) their impact on GHG is smaller than for other species including freshwater species. Salmon farming managed to reduce the FCR from around 2.8 to around 1.2 in less than 30 years thanks to technological developments, training, and better management.”
Michael Adler, Biomar’s R&D Manager Americas, gave a presentation on exactly this subject – entitled "Improving Feeds and FCR: the perspective from salmon farming (feed quality and management) and how the lessons learnt from salmon industry to be used in tropical freshwater species".
“In the great scheme of things it was not long ago that FCRs in salmon farming were above 2, large efforts in R&D and innovation in the different factors influencing salmon production has led this livestock sector to be one of the most efficient, with potential FCRs close to 1. This workshop is a great opportunity for cooperation and to transfer technology by using the experiences in salmon to support growth in aquaculture,” he said.
“Improving FCR and the feeding process to reduce environmental footprint are challenges that we all can overcome by collaborating, sharing knowledge and working on innovation for improved sustainability,” he concluded.
