To help accelerate innovation, research, and development in aquatic food production, and to understand the full potential of the sector, CIEL (Centre for Innovation Excellence in Livestock) has been the driving-force behind an aquaculture seed funding initiative.
Martin Sutcliffe, CIEL's aquaculture specialist explains that the projects supported through the initiative were selected based on their potential to move the industry forward.
"CIEL works with organisations across the agri-food sector, encouraging knowledge exchange and best practice while tapping into academic expertise," he says.
"Bringing agri-food and aquaculture sectors together was one of the main goals of this work."
"We've supported a variety of projects including one looking specifically at reducing carbon emissions. This involved assessing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from Pangasius (Basa) production in Vietnam, where the majority of aquaculture takes place in open pond systems."
"Little is known about direct GHG emissions from production ponds, and this research could potentially be replicated in other forms of aquaculture production."
"There are also synergies and lessons which relate to reducing emissions from livestock manure," explains Mr Sutcliffe.
He adds that other projects looked at the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of cleaner fish as a sustainable tool for sea lice management, with improvements that could have positive impacts on the salmon industry in Scotland.
"Another project which demonstrates this is the seaweed protein biomass cultivation system project which was run by seaweed farmers, Seaweed Generation Ltd. Their research has shown how seaweed has significant potential as a feed source for the poultry industry."
"The projects have all worked well so far, and the results are promising."
Phil Bicknell, director of CIEL adds: "We are delighted to support these projects as they not only show the strength of the aquaculture industry in the UK, but they have also sparked further ideas for many in the industry as to how agriculture and aquaculture can be brought together to benefit each other.
"R&D across aquaculture is vital. As an industry, we need to continue to seek investment opportunities to ensure the UK aquaculture industry can be globally competitive and resilient.
"This has been underlined by these seed funding projects, by CIEL's recent regional roadshows with the sector, and is again emphasised in our latest net zero work."
The Aquaculturists
No comments:
Post a Comment