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No Thumbnail AvailableBook (stand-alone)A strategic assessment of the potential for freshwater fish farming in Latin America. 1997
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Marine and many inland fishery resources are heavily exploited or overexploited, and although there is potential for increasing production from inland fisheries through intensification, development of aquaculture holds the most promise in the long term for improving food security through increasing the supply of fish. Currently, inland aquaculture production in Latin America is insignificant compared with the output from inland and marine fisheries. Lack of good planning at national level has been identified as a serious impediment to the development of aquaculture. Estimates of potential are scarce that are both comprehensive and comparable over large geographic areas. Accordingly, the objective of this study was to estimate the potential for warm-water and temperate-water fish farming in the fresh waters of Latin America in order to stimulate improved planning for aquaculture development at national levels, and at the same time to provide a tool to plan comprehensively for technic al assistance activities by FAO and other national and international organizations. The present study is patterned on an estimate of warm-water fish farming potential made for Africa. However, a number of refinements have been made, one of which is a fourfold increase in resolution (i.e., to 5 arc-minutes, equivalent to 9 km x 9 km grids at the equator), thereby making the results much more usable for assessing fish farming potential at the national level. Another refinement is that, for the first time, a bio-energetics model has been incorporated into a geographical information system (GIS) to predict fish yields over large geographic areas. A gridded water temperature data set was used as input to the bioenergetics model to predict numbers of crops per year for four species: Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus), tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum), pacu (Piaractus mesopotamicus) and carp (Cyprinus carpio). By varying input levels and sizes at harvest, opportunities for two levels of c ommercial fish farming and for small-scale fish farming were identified. In addition to the suitability of each 9 x 9 km grid cell for the production of the above-mentioned species, each grid cell was evaluated for a number of other factors important for fish-farm development and operation. These included urban market potential based on travel time proximity and population size of urban centres, potential for farm-gate sales based on population density, engineering and terrain suitability for pond construction using a variety of soil attributes, water loss from ponds due to evaporation and seepage, and availability of agricultural by-products as feed inputs based on crop potential. Commercial and small-scale aquaculture models were developed by weighting these factors using a multiple criteria evaluation procedure. Areas unavailable for inland fish farming development were identified by incorporating protected areas and large inland water bodies as constraints. Finally, the yield potential of each grid cell for each of the four species was analysed using the growth model together with the other factors in the commercial and small-scale models to show the coincidence of each class of suitability with each range of yield potential. Potential for inland fish farming is high in continental Latin America. From 8% to 60% of the continental area scores from suitable to very suitable for small-scale farming of Nile tilapia and carp, respectively. In the same areas, from 0.9 to 1.7 crops/y of Nile tilapia and from 0.9 to 1.8 crops/y of carp can be realized by harvesting at modest weights. The most important factor for commercial fish farming - urban market potential - scores high across more than one-half of the continent. -
No Thumbnail AvailableBook (stand-alone)Bibliography of Latin American and Caribbean freshwater species / Bibliografía sobre especies de agua dulce de América Latina y el Caribe 1985
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Book (series)A strategic reassessment of fish farming potential in Africa 1998
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No results found.The present study is an update of an earlier assessment of warm-water fish farming potential in Africa, by Kapetsky (1994). The objective of this study was to assess locations and areal expanses that have potential for warm-water and temperate-water fish farming in continental Africa. The study was based on previous estimates for Africa by the above author, and on estimates of potential for warm-water and temperate-water fish farming in Latin America by Kapetsky and Nath (1997). However, a nu mber of refinements have been made. The most important refinement was that new data allowed a sevenfold increase in resolution over that used in the previous Africa study, and a twofold increase over that of Latin America (i.e. to 3 arc minutes, equivalent to 5 km x 5 km grids at the equator), making the present results more usable in order to assess fish farming potential at the national level. A geographical information system (GIS) was used to evaluate each grid cell on the basis of severa l land-quality factors important for fish-farm development and operation regardless of the fish species used. Protected areas, large inland water bodies and major cities were identified as constraint areas, and were excluded from any fish farming development altogether. Small-scale fish farming potential was assessed on the basis of four factors: water requirement from ponds due to evaporation and seepage, soil and terrain suitability for pond construction based on a variety of soil attributes a nd slopes, availability of livestock wastes and agricultural by-products as feed inputs based on manure and crop potential, and farm-gate sales as a function of population density. For commercial farming, an urban market potential criterion was added based on population size of urban centres and travel time proximity. Both small-scale and commercial models were developed by weighting the above factors using a multi-criteria decision-making procedure. A bioenergetics model was incorporated int o the GIS to predict, for the first time, fish yields across Africa. A gridded water temperature data set was used as input to a bioenergetics model to predict number of crops per year for the following three species: Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus), African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) and Common carp (Cyprinus carpio). Similar analytical approaches to those by Kapetsky and Nath (1997) were followed in the yield estimation. However, different specifications were used for small-scale and co mmercial farming scenarios in order to reflect the types of culture practices found in Africa. Moreover, the fish growth simulation model, documented in Kapetsky and Nath (1997), was refined to enable consideration of feed quality and high fish biomass in ponds. The small-scale and commercial models derived from the land-quality evaluation were combined with the yield potential of each grid cell for each of the three fish species to show the coincidence of each land-quality suitability class with a range of yield potentials. Finally, the land quality-fish yield potential combinations were put together to show where the fish farming potential coincided for the three fish species. The results are generally positive. Estimates of the quality of land show that about 23% of continental Africa scored very suitable for both small-scale and commercial fish farming. For the three fish species, 50-76% of Africa's land has the highest yield range potential, and the spatial distribution of th is yield is quite similar among the species and farming systems. However, the spatial distribution of carp culture potential was greater than for Nile tilapia and African catfish. Combining the two farming system models with the favourable yields of the three fish species suggest that over 15% of the continent has land areas with high suitability for pond aquaculture.
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