Water and Land as Shared Resources for Agriculture and Aquaculture: Insights from Asia

Abstract

Although agriculture and aquaculture depend on access to increasingly scarce, shared water resources to produce food for human consumption, they are most often considered in isolation. We argue that they should be treated as integrated components of a single complex system that is prone to direct or indirect tradeoffs that should be avoided while also being amenable to synergies that should be sought. Direct tradeoffs such as competition for space or the pollution of shared water resources usually occur when the footprints of agriculture and aquaculture overlap or when the two practices coexist in close proximity to one another. Interactions can be modulated by factors such as hydropower infrastructure and short-term economic incentives, both of which are known to disrupt the balance between aquaculture and agriculture. Indirect tradeoffs, on the other hand, play out across distances, i.e., when agricultural food sources are diverted to feed animals in aquaculture. Synergies are associated with the culture of aquatic organisms in rice paddies and irrigation waters, seasonal rotations of crop cultivation with aquaculture, and various forms of integrated agriculture–aquaculture (IAA), including jitang, a highly developed variant of pond-dike IAA. Policy decisions, socioeconomic considerations, and technology warrant increased scrutiny as determinants of tradeoffs and synergies. Priority issues for the future include guiding the expansion of aquaculture from its traditional base in Asia, taking advantage of the heterogeneity that exists within both agricultural and aquaculture systems, the development of additional metrics of tradeoffs and synergies, and adapting to the effects of climate change.

Effects of organic fertilizers produced from fish pond sediment on growth performances and yield of Malabar and Amaranthus vegetables

“…Similar to several earlier studies, this study shows that the reuse and recycling of nutrients in integrated aquaculture and agricultural systems help to improve the efficiency of food production and help to reduce pollution by excessive nutrients, thereby contributing to improved living conditions for farmers through increased income and environmental health (Berg, 2002;Drózdz et al, 2020;Pueppke et al, 2020;Ahmed and Turchini, 2021;Farrant et al, 2021). We found that chemical fertilizer supplemented with 25 and 50% of organic fertilizers applied to the soil had a significant positive impact on the growth performance indices of Malabar spinach and Amaranthus cruentus and resulted in the highest final yield of these vegetables.…”

Research on Expansion Characteristics of Aquaculture Ponds and Variations in Ecosystem Service Value from the Perspective of Protecting Cultivated Lands: A Case Study of Liyang City, China

“…Most of the previous studies consider the ecosystem of a region as a whole and study the ecosystem of different land use types as an integral part but neglect differences among different land use types in the ecosystem. Some studies found that cultivated lands would be occupied for the expansion of aquaculture ponds [ 59 ], but few studies estimated the ESV change. In consideration of the urgency of the phenomenon, the study selects cultivated lands and aquaculture ponds to independently analyze their ESV changes, which will improve research in the field.…”

Quantifying spatio-temporal variation in aquaculture production areas in Satkhira, Bangladesh using geospatial and social survey

“…With a look at the scarce water resources and the increasing food demand and energy sources, it is essential to look at both synergies and trade-offs. It can be dealt with holistically through the lens of the water-food-energy nexus rather than dealing with them in silos and looking at short-term economic incentives [ 56 ].…”