The Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries is developing environmentally friendly sustainable aquaculture to preserve aquatic ecosystems and increase national fishery production. This step has the support of the World Food Agency (Food and Agricultural Organization / FAO) because it will contribute to global food security which is predicted to continue to increase many times over year.
"One of the KKP's Blue Economy strategies is the development of environmentally friendly aquaculture, especially for shrimp, lobster, crab, seaweed, and fish with high economic value such as grouper and snapper," said Minister Trenggono in a bilateral meeting with the Director General of FAO Qu Dongyu in Rome, Italy, Monday (5/9/2022) afternoon local time.
This sustainable cultivation policy, he continued, also aims to reduce fishing activities in the sea, especially for certain types of fish. Thus fishermen no longer depend on the catch as the only source of income, and fish populations in the sea are maintained.
To strengthen sustainable aquaculture policies, Indonesia through the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries also encourages the use of feed that does not damage the environment and replaces it with vegetable raw materials. An example that has been done is using magot as a feed ingredient.
"We continue to innovate to present environmentally friendly feed. This is very important because currently most feed raw materials still depend on marine products, while the aim of developing aquaculture is to reduce fishing at sea," he concluded.
The Director General of Cultivation Fisheries at KKP TB Haeru Rahayu added, from the development of sustainable aquaculture, the Indonesian government is one of them targeting national shrimp production of 2 million tons in 2024. The production results are to meet the needs of domestic shrimp as well as the global market.
"Especially for shrimp, our strategy to increase production starts with evaluating existing ponds. Then revitalize traditional ponds, and build area-based modeling of shrimp ponds. Right now everything is running," Tebe - TB Haeru Rahayu's nickname.
Meanwhile, FAO Director General Qu Dongyu appreciated Indonesia's strategic steps in developing sustainable cultivation. According to him, Indonesia as an archipelagic country has enormous fishery and complexity resources, as well as potential human resources. He admitted that aquaculture is the future of the fisheries sector to drive the country's economic growth as well as local and global food security. FAO predicts that the world's protein needs will increase by 70 percent in 2050 as the human population increases. “Let's talk more specifically about cultivation. The issue of complexity is very broad, but aquaculture is the main one in the fisheries sector. FAO also focuses on economic aspects, and the main cultivation, "said Qu Dongyu. For information, Minister Trenggono's visit to Rome, Italy was in the framework of the 35th Committee on Fisheries (COFI) meeting held by the World Food Agency from 5 to 9 September 2022. During the meeting, Minister Trenggono became the head of the Indonesian delegation.
