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    Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Aquaculture: A Life Cycle Assessment of Three Asian Systems
    Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Aquaculture: A Life Cycle Assessment of Three Asian Systems
    Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Aquaculture: A Life Cycle Assessment of Three Asian Systems
    Ebook221 pages1 hour

    Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Aquaculture: A Life Cycle Assessment of Three Asian Systems

    By Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

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    About this ebook

    The analysis was intended to improve the understanding of where and how GHG emissions arise in Asian aquaculture, whilst highlighting weaknesses in the currently available data. This results of this study will guide future studies on where to improve the data and on how to develop cost-effective ways of improving aquaculture performance and reducing emissions. This report highlights the variation within each farming system at every stage of the three Asian aquaculture systems. The report makes some suggestions for methods which potentially could reduce emission intensities related to the farming systems, but applying best practices uniformly on farms and thus increasing efficiencies appear to be major factors for improvement.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherFood and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
    Release dateJan 29, 2018
    ISBN9789251301760
    Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Aquaculture: A Life Cycle Assessment of Three Asian Systems
    Author

    Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

    An intergovernmental organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has 194 Member Nations, two associate members and one member organization, the European Union. Its employees come from various cultural backgrounds and are experts in the multiple fields of activity FAO engages in. FAO’s staff capacity allows it to support improved governance inter alia, generate, develop and adapt existing tools and guidelines and provide targeted governance support as a resource to country and regional level FAO offices. Headquartered in Rome, Italy, FAO is present in over 130 countries.Founded in 1945, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Serving both developed and developing countries, FAO provides a neutral forum where all nations meet as equals to negotiate agreements and debate policy. The Organization publishes authoritative publications on agriculture, fisheries, forestry and nutrition.

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      Book preview

      Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Aquaculture - Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

      Cover photographs:

      Top to bottom: A large Nile tilapia pond, Mymensingh, Bangladesh (courtesy of FAO/Mohammad R. Hasan). Harvest of striped catfish, Mekong Delta, Viet Nam (courtesy of FAO/La Van Chung). A typical pond for major carp, with provision of aeration, Andhra Pradesh, India (courtesy of FAO/Rajendran Suresh).

      Cover design:

      Mohammad R. Hasan and Jose Luis Castilla Civit.

      The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) concerning the legal or development status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The mention of specific companies or products of manufacturers, whether or not these have been patented, does not imply that these have been endorsed or recommended by FAO in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned.

      The views expressed in this information product are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of FAO.

      ISBN 978-92-5-109833-2

      ISBN 978-92-5-130176-0 (EPUB)

      © FAO, 2017

      FAO encourages the use, reproduction and dissemination of material in this information product. Except where otherwise indicated, material may be copied, downloaded and printed for private study, research and teaching purposes, or for use in non-commercial products or services, provided that appropriate acknowledgement of FAO as the source and copyright holder is given and that FAO’s endorsement of users’ views, products or services is not implied in any way.

      All requests for translation and adaptation rights, and for resale and other commercial use rights should be made via www.fao.org/contact-us/licence-request or addressed to copyright@fao.org.

      FAO information products are available on the FAO website (www.fao.org/publications) and can be purchased through publications-sales@fao.org.

      Preparation of this document

      This technical paper was prepared under the coordination of Dr Mohammad R. Hasan of the Aquaculture Branch, FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department as a part of FAO’s Strategic Objective (SO2): Increase and improve provision of goods and services from Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. This publication will contribute to the organizational outcome 20101: producers and natural resource managers adopt practices that increase and improve the provision of goods and services in agricultural sector production systems in a sustainable manner. The rationale of this study is to broaden the understanding of aquaculture’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and the potential mitigation through the management of aquaculture feeds and feeding.

      This study, and the publication of this document, were partially funded under the auspices of the project Climate change, fisheries and aquaculture: testing a suite of methods for understanding vulnerability, improving adaptability and enabling mitigation (GCP/GLO/322/NOR), supported by the Government of Norway.

      Field data in this study were collected by, and preliminary analysis conducted by, three national consultants: Mr Mohammad Mamun-Ur-Rashid (Nile tilapia, Bangladesh), Dr Rajendran Suresh (Indian major carps, India) and Mr La Van Chung (striped catfish, Viet Nam). The authors gratefully acknowledge the numerous fish farmers, feed dealers and feed producers in Bangladesh, India and Viet Nam for their voluntary and active support in providing valuable data and information during the field survey of this study.

      This technical paper was edited by Dr Sarah L. Poynton for linguistic quality and technical content. For consistency and conformity, scientific and English common names of fish species were used from FishBase (www.fishbase.org/search.php).

      Ms Marianne Guyonnet and Ms Danielle Rizcallah are acknowledged for their assistance in quality control and FAO house style. Mr Jose Luis Castilla Civit prepared the layout design for printing. The publishing and distribution of the document were undertaken by FAO, Rome. Finally, Dr Malcolm Beveridge, Head of the Aquaculture Branch of the FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department is acknowledged for providing the necessary support, advice and insight to complete this publication.

      Abstract

      The rapid growth and development of global aquaculture has raised questions regarding the potential associated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. To gauge the scale of GHG emission in Asia, where growth has been greatest, a preliminary study was carried out on three aquaculture systems: Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) in Bangladesh, Indian major carps (Catla catla, Cirrhinus cirrhosus, Labeo calbasu, Labeo rohita) in India, and striped catfish (Pangasianodon hypophthalmus) in Viet Nam. The analysis was intended to improve understanding of where and how GHG emissions arise in Asian aquaculture, and highlight weaknesses in the currently available data. This approach will guide future studies on how to develop cost-effective ways of improving aquaculture performance and reducing emissions, and how to improve data collection.

      Primary data were collected from April to June 2014, using questionnaires to guide interviews at 5 or 6 feed mills and 10 – 12 farms per country. The units covered a range of approaches to feed manufacture and farming, to demonstrate the different methods used in each of the three aquaculture systems. Secondary data was used to determine the related GHG emissions from cradle to farm-gate. For each of the three systems, life cycle assessment models were prepared, from pre-farm, through the farming system, to harvest. The models were not continued to market, as so many different markets were found that it was not feasible to make a representation.

      Output from the models showed distinct differences in the emissions associated with the three systems. The striped catfish system in Viet Nam had the lowest emissions (1.37 kg CO2e/kg live weight fish), followed by the Nile tilapia in Bangladesh (1.58 kg CO2e/kg live weight fish), and Indian major carps in India having the highest emissions (1.84 kg CO2e/kg live weight fish), when excluding emissions from land use change. Although the ranking remained the same, the magnitude of emissions increased in all three systems, when including land use change in the model. The production of feed was the largest source of GHG emissions for all three systems, being mainly associated with the production of the raw materials. Transport of the raw materials to the mills, and of feed from the mills to the fish farms, were also significant sources of GHG emissions. There were differences in feed mill energy requirements between countries, possibly reflecting variation in technology applications and efficiencies.

      High economic feed conversion ratios (eFCRs) exacerbated the impact of feed on GHG emissions, as more feed was required to produce one kilogram of fish. In particular, the Indian major carps showed high FCRs (1.0 – 5.0); the FCRs for striped catfish in Viet Nam and for Nile tilapia in Bangladesh were low (1.6 – 1.9 and 1.1 – 2.0 respectively). The study highlighted a recent increase in the use of commercial feed in Bangladesh and India, reducing the FCRs. Farming systems in the different countries required varying quantities of energy, reflecting the relative need for pumping to exchange water in the ponds, and other energy requirements on the farms, such as lighting and transport.

      The report highlights the variation within every stage of production in each of the three aquaculture systems in Asia: raw materials used, energy use in the mills, transport methods for moving the feed to the farm, farming methods, survival of fish to harvest, and feed conversion ratios. The magnitude of this variation, in India and Bangladesh in particular, showed that significant work is needed to communicate and execute better feed formulation and farming practices. The report recommends methods which could reduce emission intensities related to the farming systems. Applying best practices uniformly on farms, and thus increasing efficiencies, appear to be major factors needing improvement.

      Robb, D.H.F., MacLeod, M., Hasan, M.R. & Soto, D. 2017. Greenhouse gas emissions from aquaculture: a life cycle assessment of three Asian systems. FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Technical Paper No. 609. Rome, FAO. 110 pp.

      Contents

      Preparation of this document

      Abstract

      Contributors

      Abbreviations and acronyms

      Executive summary

      1. Introduction

      1.1 Aquaculture and greenhouse gas emissions

      1.2 Aim and scope of this study

      1.3 The three systems studied

      1.3.1 Bangladesh: Nile tilapia

      1.3.2 India: Indian major carps

      1.3.3 Viet Nam: striped catfish

      2. Methodology

      2.1 Field surveys

      2.1.1 Development of the questionnaires

      2.1.2 Data collection

      2.1.3 Raw material questionnaire

      2.1.4 Feed mill questionnaire

      2.1.5 Feed distribution questionnaire

      2.1.6 Fish farm questionnaire

      2.1.7 Fish market questionnaire

      2.1.8 Establishing the database

      2.2 Methodology for quantifying GHG emissions

      2.2.1 Model overview

      2.2.2 System boundaries and scope

      2.2.3 Methods

      3. Survey results

      3.1 Aquaculture value chains

      3.1.1 Nile tilapia in Bangladesh

      3.1.2 Indian major carps in India

      3.1.3 Striped catfish in Viet Nam

      3.2 Feed raw materials

      3.2.1 Protein sources

      3.2.2 Carbohydrate sources

      3.2.3 Lipid sources

      3.2.4 Other ingredients

      3.2.5 Raw material transport

      3.3 Feed formulation

      3.3.1 Bangladesh

      3.3.2 India

      3.3.3 Viet Nam

      3.4 Feed production

      3.4.1 Losses during production

      3.4.2 Packaging

      3.5 Feed transport

      3.5.1 Losses in transport and on-farm

      3.6 Farming

      3.6.1 Farming areas

      3.6.2 Farming techniques

      3.6.3 Energy use

      3.6.4 Fish production

      3.7 Fish harvesting and markets

      4. Model results

      4.1 Emissions from cradle to farm gate

      4.2 Emissions from the production of feed materials

      4.3 Emissions from the transport of feed materials

      4.4 Emissions from energy use in the feed mills

      4.5 Emissions from transport of feed from mill to farm

      4.6 Comparison of total feed Emission

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