This research is commissioned by the professorship Novel Proteins: Insects and Fish, Healthy, Sustainable and Safe (INVIS) and conducted with the aim to investigate the constraints that hinder the uptake of insect-based feed in the Dutch finfish aquaculture branch and advise upon how to initiate a transition within the branch to adopt insect meal in fish feed widely. This is a underlying report of the webinar Insect culture in the Netherlands for feed and food on January 19, 2021.
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Flyer with information about the lectureship INVIS, HAS Hogeschool. Extend and integrate knowledge, experience, and education on healthy and safe insect and fish culture: Investigate risk factors and support the use of healthy and safe insects in aquaculture feed in cooperation with feed processors.
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Recording of the webinar "Insect culture in the Netherlands for feed and food with special focus on bacterial health" from Dr. Olga Haenen (Dutch National Reference Laboratory for Fish, Shellfish and Crustacean Diseases) presenting as part of the Centre for Sustainable Tropical Fisheries and Aquaculture (CSTFA) Webinar Series.
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Vietnamese farmed pangasius products have experienced major price fluctuations over numerous crop cycles exposing this important export commodity to risk and uncertainty. This study focuses on two distinct areas of risk. First, this study seeks to measures the farm-gate price volatility, explores farmers’ perceptions about the price volatility risk related to the input sourcing and output selling activities, and quantifies the effectiveness of price volatility risk management strategies. Second, the relationships between farm and farmer socioeconomic characteristics, perceptions about the price volatility risk and management strategies are also examined. To respond to these research questions, a focus group workshop was conducted with 29 stakeholders and a structured survey with 92 farmers located in the provinces of An Giang, Can Tho, and Dong Thap of the Vietnamese Mekong Delta. Results illustrated that the pangasius farm-gate price fluctuates significantly over time. Vietnamese pangasius farmers are mainly concerned about the volatilities of input and output prices, additionally with the instability of the volume input supply, instability in demand volume, and weak legislation on sale contracts. Results further indicate that price volatility risk management strategies are less effective in practically protecting farmers against price volatility risks. Farmers with higher education knowledge opt for fully integrated farms and are less concerned about the output price volatility risk. Promoting risk-sharing schemes such as contract farms or insurance for farmers with higher educational levels and being accessible to credit could support Vietnamese pangasius farmers toward increasing the sustainability of pangasius production.
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The Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) Challenge simulation platform helps planners and stakeholders understand and manage the complexity of MSP. In the interactive simulation, different data layers covering an entire sea region can be viewed to make an assessment of the current status. Users can create scenarios for future uses of the marine space over a period of several decades. Changes in energy infrastructure, shipping, and the marine environment are then simulated, and the effects are visualized using indicators and heat maps. The platform is built with advanced game technology and uses aspects of role-play to create interactive sessions; it can thus be referred to as serious gaming. To calculate and visualize the effects of planning decisions on the marine ecology, we integrated the Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) food web modeling approach into the platform. We demonstrate how EwE was connected to MSP, considering the range of constraints imposed by running scientific software in interactive serious gaming sessions while still providing cascading ecological feedback in response to planning actions. We explored the connection by adapting two published ecological models for use in MSP sessions. We conclude with lessons learned and identify future developments of the simulation platform.
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Seaweeds from the genus Porphyra play a big economic role in seaweed aquaculture, mainly in Asia. In Europe, resources are put towards seaweed cultivation, but without attention to the Porphyra species which is also native to Europe. Different nomenclature and specifications are used to describe Porphyra, due to taxonomical reclassification and difficult phenotypical identification. Abiotic & biotic together with seasonal factors make for major variance in chemical compositions that are reported. This is also fueled by differences in chemical analytical methods and procedures followed. Combining taxonomical challenges, variance due to seasonal factors and differences in analysis, overviewing published research on Porphyra constituents such as protein, polysaccharides and fatty acids is warranted. Within this review, cellular consitutents found in Porphyra are discussed, including proteins, polysaccharides, fatty acids and mycosporine-like amino acids (MAA’s). MAA's are considered amongst the strongest UV-photoprotectants found in nature and feature possible applications in cosmetics. As global interest in seaweeds as food, feed and industrial resource is emerging, opportunities for Porphyra constituents is rising.
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Aquaponics is a recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) which combines the cultivation of fish with the growing of plants. Similar to vertical farming, aquaponics is one of the new forms of space and resource efficient methods of food production. The mechanical and electronic technology essential to a sustainable management of the living system(s) is still at an early stage of development. Systemic imbalance frequently occurs in current practice and leads to costly and time consuming problems that threaten the commercial viability of aquaponics at all scales of application. The smart marine aquaponics (SMA) project endeavoured to explore opportunities in two key areas of RAS development. Firstly by focusing upon what could be the most resource efficient type of RAS, namely one using marine conditions and life forms. Secondly by addressing what is commonly accepted as one of the greatest obstacles to prolonged system stability and efficiency, the process known as fecal waste mineralization. The transformation of fecal waste excreted by aquatic fauna into the nutrients for aquatic plants can be assisted or hampered by water conditions and in turn, accumulating in its untransformed state, can reduce the ability of the water to support flora and fauna. SMA applied sensors to actual and simulated forms of marine based RAS to measure and optimize the effects of mechanical intervention in the process of mineralization.
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The Zhanghe irrigation system (ZIS) is located in the Yangtze River Basin approximately 200 km west of Wuhan in Hubei Province. The reservoir was designed for multiple uses—irrigation, flood control, domestic water supply, industrial use, aquaculture, and hydropower. Over a period of more than 30 years a steadily increasing amount of water has been transferred from irrigation to other uses. Activities on the part of government, irrigation system managers, and farmers made this transfer possible with only modest decline in rice production. Most important factor was the steady increase in rice yields. The water pricing system provided an incentive for ZIS to reduce irrigation releases. With the steady decline in releases, farmers were forced to find ways to save water. Farmers improved existing ponds and built new ones to store water (improved infrastructure). Access to pond water on demand facilitated the adoption of alternate wetting and drying (technology) particularly in dry years. The establishment of volumetric pricing (price policy) and water user associations (institutions) may also have provided incentives for adoption of AWD, but more research is needed to establish their impact. These activities taken together can be seen as potentially complementary measures. Farmers received no direct compensation for the transfer of water, but recently farm taxes have been reduced or altogether abolished. Further reduction in water releases from the ZIS reservoir could adversely affect rice production in normal or dry years.
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Due to the environmental and nutritional benefits of insects, their consumption would be one of the solutions to feed the growing human population. Despite the increasing interest in the use of insects as food and feed, consumer acceptance is the major obstacle to successful implementation in Western countries and we studied the factors that influence consumer acceptance in a group of university students from Germany and the Netherlands. In this exploratory research, a survey was conducted (n = 222). Socio‐demographic and psychological factors were established from a theoretical review. In addition, we elaborated on questions regarding information on the health and environmental benefits of consuming insects. Initially, the data obtained are presented through descriptive statistics. The influence of the socio‐demographic and psychological factors, and the information on the willingness to accept insects as animal feed and human food was analyzed using correlations and multiple linear regressions. Results showed more willingness to accept insects as animal feed than in human food. The acceptance among German and Dutch students seems to be driven by issues similar to those in other European countries, such as visual aspects and knowledge about the benefits. The effect of the information on willingness constitutes an important finding of this study, especially for the use of insects in animal feed, since most of the previous studies have focused on the use of insects as human food. Our data support the need to inform and educate consumers about the environmental and health benefits of entomophagy. We conclude that effective efforts to implement entomophagy could increase the level of familiarity with the insect food and inform (or educate) consumers about its benefits. Insights from this study are useful to address studies focusing on specific segments of possible early adopters and consequently addressing communication strategies in this market segmentation.
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