Author(s): Ajmal Hussan, S Adhikari, Arabinda Das, Farhana Hoque and BR Pillai

Abstract: The world’s appetite for fish is growing steadily. Aquaculture has bridged that gap between the growing demand for fish and the almost stagnated wild fish catch, contributing at present nearly 47% of the world’s total fish production of 171 million tonnes. Global aquaculture production has almost doubled between 2000 and 2016, it is estimated that, to meet the demands of the growing population, aquaculture production will need to more than double again between now and 2050. Being a young industry, aquaculture has still wide scope to meet the demand of the nine billion people in 2050, through horizontal expansion as well as improvements in production systems. But the industry is facing ‘access-limitation to freshwater resources’ due to growing global water crisis. With more than 40% of the global population already facing the problem of water scarcity, the scenario in coming days will be worse, where there will be no freshwater available to drink even for human, and thus utilization of water for fish culture will be hard. So, if we wish to make available fish- the cheapest animal protein for future generation, we need to conserve our water to the height above human needs. In aquaculture, improving water use efficiency through intensification and diversification will not only contribute to ‘future water security’, but also lessen the conflicts the aquaculture industry is facing with other water users. Fishes like Snakeheads (Channa spp.), climbing perch (Anabas testudineus), which can live out of water for few days and tolerate extremely unfavourable water conditions, can also be promoted for ‘future water-stressed aquaculture’.

Pages: 39-48  |  852 Views  168 Downloads

Download Full Article: Click Here