INTEGRATED AQUACULTURE
As a research scientist, my activities are focused on the development of innovative and sustainable aquaculture systems. Personally, my vision is one that sees the potential of rural areas being fully realised through the development of farming systems that make better use of regional Australia’s most valuable commodity - water. In global terms integrated agriculture aquaculture systems (IAAS) account for the majority of the world’s freshwater fish production. In Australia, aquaculture represents a potentially valuable opportunity for farmers seeking to diversify their operations and maximise the use of their valuable water resources, farm infrastructure, and in certain cases degraded or marginal farming land.
One industry with significant development potential is the irrigation sector. In Queensland the irrigation industry consumes almost 3000 GL of water per year – 75% of the states total water use. However, demand for water is increasing and as a result water is the most rapidly appreciating commodity in regional Australia. As the demand and value of water increases so will the impetus for irrigators to look at new ways to improve their return from each unit of water.
Aquaculture as a first use of irrigation water is widely practiced in other developed countries as the same water can still be used for the production of traditional crops. This approach has been demonstrated to increase the return from each unit of water and as a result improve a farms overall productivity. In the United States the practice of integrating aquaculture with irrigated cotton and grains production is providing significant returns for farmers. Up to 150t/year of tilapia and catfish are produced per farm using a variety of approaches including ponds, tanks and cages. These developments have been achieved while avoiding issues of pesticide contamination from adjacent crops such as cotton and various grains. Potential exists to establish similar integrated production facilities in Australia based on the use of native fish species such as barramundi, silver perch, golden perch and Murray cod.
This presentation will discuss two case studies of farmers who are attempting to integrate their irrigated farming and aquaculture operations. The first involves the integration of silver perch production with cotton/grains production while the second involves the integration of barramundi farming with sugarcane production. Both growers aim utilise available farm resources, labour and infrastructure more productively. If successfully implemented and taken up by industry, integrated production represents a significant opportunity for rural growth and employment in regional Queensland.