Modern intensive fish culture, including shrimp. Declining capture fisheries have raised concerns that fish meal in formulated feed may actually constrain the growth of aquaculture. Positive contribution to food security Aquaculture has a significant positive contribution to food security through extensive and semi-intensive systems of production in which natural feed for fish predominates. Low cost inputs are affordable to poorer farmers and because the cost of production is low, the fish can be sold at a reasonable and affordable price to poor consumers. In contrast, fish cultured intensively can be marketed profitably only at a relatively high price because of the high production cost which puts them beyond the purchasing power of most consumers.
Several misconceptions constrain the promotion of extensive and semi-intensive aquaculture.
Perhaps the most common is that competition by aquaculture for land, water and inputs with agriculture has serious negative consequences. Competition there certainly is, but in an integrated system the outcome is more likely to be positive through synergism, i.e., increased output from use of a given resource. There has been a recent marked surge in the construction of small on-farm ponds, mainly in response to increasingly unreliable availability of water. Such ponds, irrespective of whether they are used for aquaculture, have positive environmental impact. They essentially function as on-farm reservoirs and may serve as a focus for agricultural diversification, supporting the integrated production of crops and livestock as well as fish.