At the Aquaculture Europe 2023 congress, held in Vienna (Austria), the FoodLAND partner Davide Sorella from AquaBioTech presented the aquaculture activities of the project.

In his presentation, Sorella emphasized that FoodLAND´s objective is to ensure a shorter distribution chain that can be more competitive with imported products, and to this end, aquaculture technologies for both urban and peri-urban areas is being developed.

For this purpose, The Aquaculture Working Group, led by AquaBioTech, has developed technologies and techniques that will support and develop local aquaculture practices in several different areas of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Tunisia. According to AquaBioTech, the aim of this project is to investigate new feeds to reduce the reliance on fishmeal heavy and imported feeds. In addition to this point, recirculating technologies that can be reproduced by small-scale farmers for fingerling production are being assessed and research on integrated agri-aquaculture production systems, using wastewater from aquaculture to grow crops, is currently ongoing. To achieve all these objectives Sorella explained that they are based on five important principles: injection point for technological innovations, farmer validation, community engagement and co-creation, demonstration pilots and on-location training and support.