Abstract
Freshwater pond aquaculture is the prevailing fish culture system worldwide, especially in developing countries. The sustainability of such systems has not been assessed and it can be improved based on suitable scientific analyses. In the present study, we apply the emergy synthesis to assess the sustainability of lambari aquaculture, used as a model of freshwater pond monoculture in Brazil, to identify the key practices, and to propose changes to improve them towards sustainability. As a study model, nine semi-intensive lambari farms operating at three levels of management were evaluated: low (LC), moderate (MC) and high (HC) control. Results showed that the main inputs for LC were services (27–46%), feed (7–39%) and water (15–21%), while for the MC and HC farms, they were feed (35–49% and 17–48%, respectively) and services (33–39% and 26–36%, respectively). All farms required more than 60% of their emergy from purchased inputs, resulting in low emergy sustainability index (ESI = 0.1–0.5). Increasing juvenile productivity, using superficial water instead of springwater, controlling pond fertilization and replacing animal protein in diet composition by vegetable sources can lead systems to higher efficiency and resilience, increasing sustainability.
Highlights
Aquaculture has been important to feed a growing world population in the current millennium
All the lambari aquaculture systems evaluated in this study rely on similar external inputs and internal processes, in which the differences are related to the amount and proportions for R, N and F input resources demanded by each farm
The high control (HC) and moderate control (MC) systems rely on external labor, either permanent or temporary, while the Low control (LC) system relies on local family labor
Summary
Aquaculture has been important to feed a growing world population in the current millennium. Sustainable development was stated as a fundamental goal in the ecosystem approach to aquaculture (EAA) proposed by FAO in 2008 [1] and it remains a major concern [2,3]. Innovative systems, such as integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA), aquaponics and bioflocs have been developed to increase productivity and sustainability [4,5,6,7], most of the aquaculture production comes from inland small-scale pond farms in rural areas [3]. The EAA framework lacks a systemic approach for understanding how small-scale freshwater pond aquaculture is connected with the surrounding social, economic and environmental systems
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