Locally produced fish feed ingredients with multiple functions can boost sustainable aquaculture production

Over the past few years, Dr Kartik Baruah has been involved in several aquaculture projects in the Global North and Global South. Dr. Baruah has also been involved in the SASi-SPi project supported by EC DG-INTPA. In the SASi-SPi Science Policy Lab that was held in Brussels, Dr. Baruah reflected on some of the challenges to achieving sustainability in aquatic food systems, one of the fastest-growing food production sectors.

Need of protein

After PhD and over 5 years of Postdoc studies at Ghent University in Belgium, Dr Kartik Baruah joined SLU in 2017. Today, he leads a research group of ten people working on nutraceuticals, epigenetics, health and microbial management in farmed aquatic species. 

- I play with nutraceuticals to see how we can build robustness in fish and shrimp and steer the microbial communities in aquatic systems to maintain optimal conditions for positive host-microbe interaction.

Nutraceuticals, in this case, are fish feed ingredients with both nutritional and pharmaceutical benefits.

Although today there is a lot of focus on sustainability, there will always be an ecological footprint, according to Dr Baruah. At the same time, there is a need for protein to strengthen food security in low- and middle-income countries.

- So, we need to find a balance. Small-scale farmers can’t always afford sustainability practices because they need the output. 

Dr. Baruah is currently supervising a few MSc and PhD thesis students, some in collaboration with organisations and institutes in the Global South. Two PhD students in Dr Baruah’s research group focus on how fish feed can be more sustainable and how they can contribute to both good growth and health. These students are from Nigeria and Zambia, and the PhD projects have been conducted in cooperation with the WorldFish Center, Malaysia. In their project, the students have been screening local ingredients, sourced from Zambia and Nigeria, to find a suitable basis for producing low-cost and carbon-neutral fish feed for boosting the growth and health of farmed African catfish and Tilapia. In Zambia, about 11 feed ingredients were scooped. These ingredients will first be tested on tilapia in a lab at SLU in Uppsala and then in a real farm setting in Zambia. For Nigeria, the same kind of screening will take place, but focusing on catfish.

- In my group we focus on building robustness in fish or shrimp. We particularly focus on studying how to turn waste into wealth when it comes to proteins and nutraceuticals. There are a lot of proteins and essential elements in the waste from agri- and aquaculture.

Dr Baruah doesn’t want to use the word waste but prefers to talk about resources since a lot of fish feed can be made from agri- and aquacultural leftovers. He stresses that the feed should be locally produced and not imported to strengthen resilience and reduce costs, something especially important for low- and middle-income countries.

Even though fewer antibiotics are used within aquaculture today because new and more sustainable products are used, fish health still needs to improve, because of the changing climatic conditions.

- Sometimes an aqua farmer must shut down completely for several years due to a disease, so prevention is important.

Fish feed is costly

Fish feed is one of the most significant costs in aquaculture, both economically and ecologically. 

- Either we reduce the inputs, or we develop a feed that provides multiple services. Feed is an important cost. The biggest ecological cost is the input for the fish feed. 

Dr Baruah mentions insect protein as one of the most interesting research fields. In close cooperation with organisations like the World Bank, FAO, and International Artemia Aquaculture Consortium, Dr. Baruah´s research group, ANARG, is studying the potential of utilising brine shrimp Artemia as a viable protein for aquaculture feed.

Growing food sector

Aquaculture is one of the fastest-growing food production sectors in the world. Academia is producing new knowledge about aquatic sustainability, and innovation is taking place. Governments are working with policy and regulations, but knowledge and policy need to be spread to all actors within the aquatic food system. 

- There is still a gap in knowledge and there is also an acceptance issue that we have to deal with; it takes time for new knowledge and practices to get accepted.

Dr Baruah points to peer learning as a good way of transmitting new knowledge. When a farm has a good experience with new technology or practices, another farmer asks how they did it. 

He tells about an experience from Indonesia where aquafarmers had read some of his papers, tried his practices and gave him feedback on how they worked in real life.

- I was so surprised they had read our scientific papers and were applying the technology on their farms. After the feedback from the farmers, we developed our formulations and made them more user-friendly, making sure that they were cost-effective, that the ecological footprint was minimized, and that whatever we added to the water should be edible by humans.

He emphasises the importance of having high-quality products before they’re put on the market.

- One negative result will destroy the market.