By Alaina Dismukes
The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Fish, managed by the Global Center for Aquatic Health and Food Security at Mississippi State University, has invested a total of $600,000 in six, new 1-year activities to increase food security in Asia and Africa through nutritious aquatic foods.
These Startup and Scaling Activities will work in Bangladesh, Kenya, Nigeria, and Zambia. Two activities aim to scale up work funded during the Fish Innovation Lab’s first 5-year phase, while the other four introduce new research to improve aquaculture and fisheries in partner countries through innovative research and capacity building.
"The idea for the Startup and Scaling Activities was to provide research opportunities to a mix of new teams as well as experienced teams from Phase 1," said Mark Lawrence, director of the Fish Innovation Lab and William L. Giles Distinguished Professor in MSU’s College of Veterinary Medicine. "We want to both conduct further research to scale innovations developed in the first phase and kickstart new ideas by adding new teams to the Fish Innovation Lab community of practice."
One of the Bangladesh activities, Carp Biosecurity in Bangladesh, is launching new work to improve carp biosecurity through a progressive management pathway approach. This work is especially important to Bangladesh as the fifth-largest aquaculture producer worldwide. However, the aquaculture industry in the country has ongoing issues with fish mortality, which affects the livelihoods of those in the industry as well as the availability of fish for consumers. The research team seeks to identify areas for improving biosecurity and recommend solutions to key stakeholders.
A second activity in Bangladesh will scale previous work to evaluate fresh fish processing practices in retail markets and consumer homes to improve food safety and nutrition, especially when it comes to processing and preparing aquatic foods for consumption. The previous Fish Innovation Lab activity found that an alarming percentage of fish from cut-up tables in retail markets were contaminated with harmful pathogens, making the Improving Food Safety of Fish in Bangladesh activity increasingly important to both identify practices causing exposure and disseminate food safety information and training.
Swimming over to the continent of Africa, the Integrated Agri-Aquaculture Systems in Kenya team will use climate-smart solutions to integrate agriculture and aquaculture to increase food security and reduce poverty. This startup activity will address the nutritional needs of Kenyans by implementing an aquaponics system to produce fish as well as vegetables while strengthening the capacity of local stakeholders who can use this system to produce more food for themselves and their communities.
Another Kenya startup activity will analyze fish health and antimicrobial resistance in aquaculture. Improvements in biosecurity practices can greatly reduce the risk and magnitude of fish mortality occurring in aquaculture ponds, improving both economic and fish health outcomes. The Fish Health in Kenyan Aquaculture team will hold educational workshops on cage farming practices to improve the uptake of biosecurity and best management practices.
In Nigeria, a startup activity will implement research on inland water bodies and how to increase fish supply while examining the impact of climate change on the inland water systems. The Nigerian Inland Fisheries team’s research will help develop effective management measures to reduce the impact of climate change and create sustainable fisheries practices.
The Scaling Fish Powder in Zambia activity is scaling up Complementary Food for Africa+Dried Fish Powder (ComFA+Fish) for further adoption in rural Zambia. Building on their earlier work with the Fish Innovation Lab, the research team will use their connections to recruit community leaders at the local level to promote the adoption of ComFA+Fish to benefit local households. Through workshops, the team will also provide nutrition information to the communities as well as household food safety basics.
"Each of these activities brings a unique approach to addressing food security and improving livelihoods using aquatic foods," said Stephen Reichley, deputy director of the Fish Innovation Lab and assistant professor in MSU’s College of Veterinary Medicine. "The Startup and Scaling format empowers teams to gather data needed to develop new ideas or to promote scaling of technologies developed in Phase 1. We are excited to add these activities to our strong portfolio focused on improving food security and positively impacting livelihoods in Africa and Asia."
Published July 31, 2024