3 Reason Why Aquaculture will Feed the World in Future

What is aquaculture?

• Aquaculture means rearing of aquatic organisms like fish, crustacean, aquatic plants etc., in natural, semi-artificial and artificial water bodies for food & profit.

• The most commonly cultured organism are  finfish (grass carp, silver carp, Nile tilapia & common carp) , crustacean (white leg shrimp, red swamp crayfish, tiger prawn) & molluscs  (oyster, scallops & sea mussels).

• Aquaculture is a sun-rise food producing industry growing at the rate of 5.3 % per year from 2001-2018 in the world. Aquaculture in India is growing annually at a rate of over 7%.

Growing human population and hunger among population 

• As the human population is growing at an alarming rate, it is expected that human population will grow from 7.8 billion in 2020 to 9.74 in 2050.

• With increase in population the resources available to feed a growing population are not enough to fulfill the total requirement of population.

• Due to non-availability of food nearly 690 Million people go to sleep without eating, that is around 8.9  % of total population. Around 840 million people will not get enough food by 2030. 

There are 3 main reason why aquaculture will complete need of highly nutritious food for humans

1. Products from aquaculture are highly nutritious. 

Mainly Fish, Shrimp produced from aquaculture contains important proteins, fatty acid, vitamins, minerals which are essential for proper growth and functioning of the human body. The meal should contain approx. 20-30 grams of protein. This need can be fulfilled by eating products (carps, tilapia, shrimp) from aquaculture because it contains 22g-25g protein per 100 gram cooked fillet.

Fish contains essential fatty acids in EPA(eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) commonly called an OMEGA 3 FATTY ACID. They have numerous benefits. Aquaculture products are rich in vitamin A,D,E and B and they contain minerals i.e. calcium, iron, zinc, iodine, magnesium, potassium and phosphorus. So FISH Is low-calorie, protein rich superfood with all required nutrition. Thus Per capita fish consumption grew from 9.0 kg to 20.9 kg And is expected to grow.

2. High Production Yield in Aquaculture 

Aquaculture is three dimensional utilization of the water body. So yield of fish will be high compared to agriculture.it means we get more food from the same land in aquaculture than agriculture. We can obtain around 4.5-9.0 ton fish per hectare by polyculture . while the yield of rice is 3 - 6 ton per hectare for wheat it is 4.49 tons.

As Demand of fish and shrimp is high, the value of harvest will be greater than that of agricultural products. The average price of while leg shrimp is 250-550 Rs per Kg Depending on Counts while price of Carps are around 300-350 Rs/Kg. So one can make a very good profit by culture. Aquaculture can be done in  saline land where agriculture is not possible in saline or salt affected land.

3. Employment generation

Unemployment is a big concern for developing countries like India & China Because of its vast population. Aquaculture can create employment in rural areas where agriculture is not possible. Day by day people are migrating from rural areas to urban in search for employment. So Per Capita Population in Cities are increasing in Alarming rate which can cause inflation in several products. Aquaculture Culture can cause reverse migration from Cities to villages.

Thus this rural economy will thrive and develop. Aquaculture gives employment to more people per area as compared to agriculture because of its three dimensional nature. It gives direct employment to Farmer, Labor's, Processor & Exporter while it gives indirect employment to Feed Producer, Transporter etc. As most marine fisheries stocks are  declining. In Future we have to depend on Aquaculture for constant & high quality seafood supply.