Aquaculture is the world’s fastest growing food production industry, with farms supplying around half of the global fish supply. But to satisfy our soaring appetite for aquatic food, we first have to be able to feed the fish and shellfish. This isn’t such an easy task, as conventional feeds are becoming less sustainable and available. It’s no wonder then that the “Animal feeding and nutrition” Thematic Session was unofficially re-named “the fish and aquaculture” session, as all three presenters shined a spotlight on innovative aquaculture feed sources that are nutritious, but that can also address the challenges and demands of intensified fish and prawn farming. So what’s on the plate? (Continue...)

Only 6 posters were presented in the session, and another hand full of people listened to them on early Thursday morning, so that Mr. Fitwi, moderator of the Poster presentation session “Aquaculture, fisheries and fish“, referred to them as the “underdogs” of the Tropentag 2013. However, the wide range of topics presented during the sessions shows that aquacultural research does not need to hide away from the big stages, but actually addresses very urgent topics such as depleting resources and women empowerment.

Oral Presentation III: Aquaculture and fisheries Ulfert Focken from Johann Heinrich von Thuenen-Institut opened the session where 3 participants presented their papers and moderated a quite lively discussion. Raymond Ouedraogo: Management of Fish Diversity in Lake Bam, Burkina Faso: Indigenous Knowledge and Implications for Conservation Raymond discussed that management of any type of resources particularly fish resources needs to account indigenous knowledge as it does have a distinct impact on its conservation. Further, he indicated that there are certain indigenous beliefs needs to be changed as these pushed for depletion of the fish stock. He even cites cases wherein people believe that “fish drop from sky and come from hills and caves” or that “authorities have to power to hide fish”. Furthermore, communal belief can be altered by institutions, education, religions, and economic change to push people towards the conservation their natural resources so not to push it to the brink of depletion. As of the moment, there are actions emanating from the grass roots level to provide conservation efforts like creating mini-dams and planting trees to fully delineate Lake Bam.